Former Arrow CEO Doug Pielsticker Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion, Fraud
Pielsticker faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000, according to a plea agreement that reduced the number of criminal counts to two from 23.
The plea agreement said Pielsticker also could be given an alternative fine that could total up to $25.6 million, double the gross amount of losses his victims sustained.
His sentencing is set for May 15.
Pielsticker pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Arrow’s accounts to pay for his wedding and luxury cars in connection with a multimillion-dollar bank and tax fraud, according to a federal indictment unsealed in December.
The original indictment charged Pielsticker, 46, 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 payroll taxes.
The indictment also accused Pielsticker and the carrier’s chief financial officer of conspiring to create fraudulent invoices that inflated the amounts due to Arrow.
The Tulsa motor carrier grew from a small operation in 1950 to become a thriving family business with nearly 1,400 trucks by the time it filed for bankruptcy in January 2010, listing $8 million in assets and $98 million in liabilities.
In December 2009, the carrier left hundreds of its drivers stranded on highways across the United States after a Utah bank voided company fuel cards.
Pielsticker was taken into custody and arraigned in Dallas in December.
