Former Arrow Trucking Executives Charged in Multi-Million-Dollar Bank Fraud and Tax Fraud

Topics:  Arrow Trucking

U.S. Attorney’s Office
5 December 2014

TULSA, OK—James Douglas Pielsticker, former Chief Executive Officer and President of Arrow Trucking Company, was arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Dallas, Texas, on bank fraud and tax fraud charges stemming from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations. Jonathan Leland Moore, former Chief Financial Officer of Arrow Trucking Company, previously waived indictment and pleaded guilty on December 4, 2014, to an one-count information charging him with conspiring to commit both bank fraud and tax fraud.

United States Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. of the Northern District of Oklahoma; Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Larry J. Wszalek for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Special Agent in Charge James E. Finch of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division Office; and Special Agent in Charge Damon Rowe of the IRS-CI’s Dallas Division Office made the announcement.

James Douglas Pielsticker, 46, of Dallas, Texas, formerly of Tulsa, Oklahoma, 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.

According to the indictment and information, from May 2009 to December 2009, Pielsticker and co-conspirators provided Transportation Alliance Bank (TAB), a financial institution located in Ogden, Utah, with fraudulent and misleading invoice data consisting of inflated amounts due to Arrow Trucking. As a result of this false information, the TAB paid Arrow Trucking more money than Arrow Trucking was entitled to under the companies’ agreement.

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.

It is further alleged, Pielsticker caused Arrow Trucking to spend thousands of dollars on various personal expenses, include payments related to Bruce Webber, Pielsticker’s wedding, and Bentley and Maserati automobiles.

If convicted, Pielsticker faces the statutory maximum penalty of not more than 30 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000 for each of the bank fraud related counts; and not more than five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count of tax related counts.

In addition, upon conviction, Pielsticker faces entry of a money judgment in the amount of $15,000,841.32 based upon proceeds he obtained as a result of the bank fraud conspiracy and the bank fraud scheme.

The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Charles O’Reilly of the Tax Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeff Gallant and Catherine Depew of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma.