Money from U.S. News’ sale will be held up.

A federal judge ruled that U.S. News & World Report should withhold $29 million plus interest from the magazine’s recent sale to cover possible unpaid benefits to former U.S. News employees. Former U.S. News employees filed suit after last year’s $178-million sale of the magazine, alleging that U.S. News had intentionally undervalued the stock of the employee-owned company, thus cheating them out of retirement money worth $45 million at the time of the sale. U.S. District Judge Barrington D. Parker ruled that the case was a serious one and that the money should be held back until trial.