Former business owner arrested, accused of stealing from employees’ 401k

The former owner and president of Pizza Supply Of Indiana was arrested Friday after an investigation found she allegedly stole about $76,000 from employees’ 401k contributions over a five-year period.

55-year-old Sue M. Gooding of Roanoke was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail Friday evening for theft of over $50,000.

Court documents say a former employee of Pizza Supply of Indiana reported to the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department that money had been withdrawn from his paycheck for his 401k, but was never deposited into the account.

This report back in November of 2016 triggered an investigation that led to a warrant being issued for Gooding’s arrest.

According to the Pizza Supply 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan agreement, Gooding established the Employee Retirement Income Security Act employee retirement savings plan in 2008 and appointed herself as the Plan’s trustee.

Pizza Supply administered the Plan and was responsible for withholding employees’ contributions and transfer contributions into trust within 15 business days.

During the investigation, authorities say they found Gooding and Pizza Supply failed to make the transfers.

Court documents indicate that $76,379.29 was withheld from employee earnings from the time the plan started until the report was made, but none of it was remitted to the plan for participants. over $25,000 of that was withheld from employee earnings from January 2015 to November 2016 alone.