Former Arrow Trucking CEO Facing Multiple Charges
In a plea deal released this week, Arrow Trucking’s former Chief Financial Officer admitted to owing $15 million to the company’s bank and $9.5 million dollars in taxes. He said he conspired all of this with the founder’s son: Doug Pielsticker. The former CEO was arrested by the feds Friday.
Pielsticker, formerly of Tulsa, was indicted by a grand jury in a 23-count superseding indictment on December 1, 2014, which was unsealed today. The superseding indictment charges Pielsticker with one-count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, 15-counts of bank fraud, one-count of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, three-counts of tax evasion, and three-counts of failing to account for and pay over payroll taxes.
It all began five years ago, when Arrow Trucking Company shut its doors just three days before Christmas.
Jonathan Moore claims Arrow Trucking took taxes out of worker’s paychecks and used the money to pay car dealerships such as Porshe, Bentley, Maserati, as well as an ex-wife and fund a wedding. The money that was spent should have been paid for taxes rather then personal spending. Moore also stated that Arrow Trucking failed to pay three quarterly tax returns and cooked the books for the bank.
As alleged in the indictment and information, Arrow Trucking withheld payroll taxes from employees’ wages. Beginning in 2009, Pielsticker and others conspired to defraud the United States by failing to account for and pay over Arrow Trucking employees’ payroll taxes and with respect to Pielsticker’s own income taxes. Arrow Trucking failed to pay over approximately $5,000,000 in payroll taxes consisting of federal income taxes, Medicare taxes, and Social Security taxes. Also, Pielsticker attempted to evade his individual income taxes due and owed to the United States for the years 2007, 2008, and 2009.
The drivers’ fuel cards canceled, leaving them stranded across America. Not only did nearly 1,400 Arrow employees suddenly not have a job … semi drivers were without their trucks … trucks they were in the process of buying out right. It put countless truck drivers into financial ruin, forcing many to lose everything.
Workers filed a class action lawsuit claiming they didn’t receive a paycheck several weeks leading up to the shutdown.
