Former Zodiac Seat Shells CFO's criminal history comes to light

In June, Zodiac Seat Shells—one of Santa Maria’s biggest employers—fired its former Chief Financial Officer Neal Stuckey and promptly sued him in Santa Barbara County Superior Court one month later. Stuckey’s accused of embezzling money from Zodiac, and it’s not the first time the former CFO’s had that allegation leveled against him.

In the July lawsuit, Zodiac alleges that Stuckey embezzled more than $118,000 from the company and purchased a brand new Toyota Tundra pickup truck with some of the money. Greg Labate, Zodiac’s attorney, told the Sun he was instructed not to comment on the lawsuit. 

Prior to his employment with Zodiac, Stuckey was charged with embezzlement, among other things, in Fresno County.  

According to online records with the Fresno County Superior Court, Stuckey was charged with embezzlement in 2008, pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to three years of probation. 

Then in March 2011, Stuckey was charged with embezzlement, forgery, and passing fake checks. After a trial in 2012, the embezzlement charge was dismissed and he was found not guilty of forgery, decided to not contend one charge of writing a fake check.

Records show that Stuckey was sentenced to probation and 60 days in county jail. 

An additional lawsuit related to his employment at Zodiac was filed in April 2015 alleging payroll misconduct. According to attorney Bruce Anticouni, who runs an employment representation law firm in Santa Barbara, Stuckey established a payroll practice that amounted to “wage theft” for hundreds of Zodiac employees. 

Update: The lawsuit, which was filed on April 21 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, alleges of Zodiac of unfair business practices, failure to pay wages in some instances, and failure to keep proper payroll records.

According to Anticouni, the employees would punch in, but would only get paid from their scheduled starting time instead of their punch-in time. The discrepancies ranged from just a few minutes to more than an hour, Anticouni told the Sun

“Within a relatively short period of time, that added up to over $300,000,” Anticouni said. “The company’s acknowledged that Stuckey set this up.” 

The Sun was unable to get confirmation from Zodiac regarding Anticouni’s statements.

The case is currently going through settlement negotiations, according to Anticouni. 

Comments (0)
Add a Comment