By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer on Jan 8, 2012, at 2:34 AM Updated on 1/08/12 at 4:07 AM
Roy, an employee from Arrow Trucking Co. who declined to give his last name, retrieves equipment from a semitrailer. Three days before Christmas in 2009, the company told workers to pack their belongings and go home, employees said. MATT BARNARD / Tulsa World file
The seeds of the problem former Arrow Chief Operating Officer Gary Jones has referred to were sown years earlier, company executives and employees said.
In court documents, sworn depositions and interviews, Arrow executives, employees and industry officials portray a captainless ship waylaid by a depressed economy, myopic leadership and self-serving executives who bought luxury cars, an airplane and a Colorado vacation home.
Jones joined the company at Christmas 2008. Within weeks, Jones said in a July deposition, the company's financial problems became obvious.
"(W)e couldn't pay our bills," Jones said. "Every day, every day, couldn't get trucks out of the shop. We couldn't buy parts. We couldn't buy tires. We couldn't buy fuel. We couldn't buy nothing."
Jonathan Moore, Arrow's former chief financial officer, said the company's cash flow deteriorated throughout 2009. In a June deposition with Transportation Alliance Bank's lawyers, Moore said he told former Arrow Chairwoman Carol Pielsticker Bump in August 2009 that Arrow couldn't pay its payroll taxes.
Moore said Arrow's cash crisis was compounded by Bump and her son, Doug Pielsticker.
Moore and other Arrow officials said Bump and Pielsticker drained cash from Arrow for personal expenses, a Maserati sports car, Bentley luxury automobile, Land Rover, Cessna Citation aircraft, jewelry, a family-owned ranch in Bixby and a vacation property in Crested Butte, Colo.
When cash was really tight, Moore said, Bump would write a personal check for deposit in Arrow accounts.
"(W)hen Doug would ask for money on Arrow's behalf ... he would make me write checks back to Carol," Moore said, "... and then he'd always give her another $50,000 check and he called it interest ..."
"Did Carol Pielsticker ever tell you in words or in substance that she was willing to curtail her personal spending in light of Arrow's financial condition?" TAB's lawyer asked.
"Not in the least," Moore said.
"Did Doug Pielsticker at any time ever tell you in words or in substance that he was willing to curtail his spending habits given Arrow's precarious financial condition?"
"Not in the least," Moore said.
D.R. Stewart 918-581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Execs allegedly looted company
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