An executive for the company that famously stranded hundreds of truck drivers by shutting down unexpectedly just days before Christmas has asked for a shorter prison sentence and wants to pay less restitution.
Hundreds Of Drivers Stranded By Arrow’s Sudden Shut Down
Arrow Trucking went out of business without warning a few days before Christmas in 2009, leaving about 900 of its 1400 drivers stranded on the road without pay or working fuel cards in order to get home. Many of the unemployed and stranded drivers only made it home for Christmas thanks to the kindness of other truck drivers.
Arrow Execs Plead Guilty
The company’s CEO Douglas Pielsticker pled guilty in 2015 to charges of tax fraud and tax evasion which led to the company’s downfall. He is currently serving a 7 and a half year sentence in a federal prison in Fort Worth.
The company’s former Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Leland Moore also pled guilty in 2015 to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit bank fraud. He was sentenced to 35 months in prison. The judge in his case pushed back the date he was to report to prison so that he could spend the holidays with his family. He was also ordered to pay $21,026,682.00 in restitution.
Moore testified against Pielsticker in court in exchange for leniency.
Former CFO Blames Lawyer For Longer Prison Sentence
On Monday, Moore filed a motion claiming that an ineffective performance by his lawyer led to a longer prison sentence and heavier restitution order than he deserves. The motion says that mistakes made by Moore’s attorney caused his sentence to be five months longer than it should have ben and made his restitution $9 million more costly than it ought to have been.
Moore’s lawyer issued a statement on the claim that he failed to do his duty: “I honestly believe that I represented Mr. Moore to the best of my ability.”
Pielsticker is also appealing his sentence on the basis of the amount of participation he had in the fraud scheme.
In the video below, you can see how the trucking community banded together to help the stranded Arrow drivers.
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FRNButR1E” width=”700″ height=”500″ responsive=”no”]https://youtu.be/35C2-8GrdDA[/su_youtube]
Sources:
Tulsa World
G. Blackie Blackwell