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Head of Pace Airlines arrested
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Published: September 22, 2009
Updated: 09/22/2009 09:34 pm
The head of Pace Airlines was arrested today on charges that he failed to pay health insurance premiums for his employees, Wayne Goodwin, the state insurance commissioner, said in a news release.
It was another in a long line of bad news for the troubled company.
William Charles Rodgers, 59, of 608 Nashua Road in Liberty, Mo., was charged with one count of willful failure to pay group health insurance premiums. Investigators say he knowingly terminated his group health insurance without providing the required 45-day notice to his 337 employees.
Additional charges are pending, and investigators from the N.C. Department of Insurance's Criminal Investigations Division are still seeking information from Pace employees.
Rodgers was arrested at Piedmont Triad International Airport this afternoon and taken to the Forsyth County magistrate's office for processing. He was placed under a $50,000 secured bond, according to the magistrate's office.
Employees will get the chance to provide more evidence next Tuesday when the insurance department holds an information meeting from 10 a.m. to noon at Joel Coliseum. The department has a form on its Web site — www.ncdoi.com — that employees are asked to bring to the meeting.
Over the past two weeks, at least 275 of Pace's employees have either been let go or felt compelled or coerced into taking a furlough. Most of those employees worked in Pace's maintenance operations. The employees and their families are struggling with the consequences of at least 10 broken oral and written paycheck pledges by Rodgers. Most employees have not been paid for work done in August and September.
Just last week, Pace Airlines announced it was suspending its charter-airline operations for 90 days. Continental Airlines ended its agreement with Pace on Aug. 28, a lucrative piece of maintenance and modification business that began in late 2007 and was supposed to run through at least 2010.
Continental said it ended the agreement because of concerns about Pace's financial status.
The Airport Commission of Forsyth County said that Pace owes more than $888,000 in overdue lease payments.
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