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Official: Defunct truck firm workers may get $720K

TULSA, Okla. — Former employees of Arrow Trucking Co. may be able to get more than $720,000 in wages owed them when the Tulsa trucking company shut down in December, a bankruptcy court official said.

"I feel reasonably confident we will be able to pay wage claims," Arrow bankruptcy trustee Patrick J. Malloy III said Friday during the first meeting of Arrow creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at Tulsa.

Malloy estimated Arrow's assets at $8.55 million and liabilities at $98.97 million.

Malloy encouraged employees to file wage claims. He said he couldn't go into details, "but there is a deal in the works that could bring in (assets) during the next 30 days to pay court-approved priority wage claims in full."

Arrow creditors — including former employees owed wages and benefits — must file claims against the company's bankruptcy estate by July 6, he said.

Tom Webster, former executive vice president of sales at Arrow, asked Malloy if expense account and medical insurance claims could be filed with wage claims.

"File a claim on what you think you're entitled to and we'll figure it out," Malloy said.

The initial meeting of creditors did not follow traditional procedures because of the unusual nature of the bankruptcy filing. In most such meetings, the debtor or owner who filed the bankruptcy petition is placed under oath and answers questions from the trustee and creditors about whether the bankruptcy petition accurately lists all assets and debts, Malloy said.

But on Jan. 8, when lawyers for Arrow owner Carol Pielsticker filed the bankruptcy liquidation petition, they provided no schedules of assets and liabilities, court officials said. The petition estimated assets and liabilities at between $100 million and $500 million each.

Company records were in "disarray" at corporate offices, according to both court and company officials.

Malloy, as trustee, has filed lawsuits against more than a dozen companies that were paid up to $7 million by Arrow in the 90 days before the bankruptcy filing.

"If the payments were outside the 'ordinary course of business,' then we can void the transfer and basically recover the money," Malloy said.

Kevin Jones of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at [email protected] .

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