Leanna Godley, president and CEO of Goddess Products.
Leanna Godley drew the kind of attention reserved for a successful operator of a small minority-owned business where she said 2017 sales topped $10 million.
As an SBA-certified Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business, her Goddess Products was able to compete for set-aside contracts envisioned to expand commercial diversity.
Among companies with one to 30 employees, her office supply venture was selected as a 2018 finalist for the Arkansas Business of the Year award, sponsored by Arkansas Business Publishing Group.
In September, Goddess Products was chosen as the Certified Minority Firm of the Year by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Small, Minority & Women-Owned Business Enterprise division.
But behind the scenes, the company was in a serious financial mess that began to snowball during 2018-19 with a string of tax liens. Unpaid taxes, penalties and interest owed by Goddess Products now tally more than $5 million.
These days, the company’s web portal has vanished, and the office phone goes unanswered, ringing a perpetual busy tone. Goddess Products has ceased operations as a $264,367 judgment by New York’s Accel Capital LLC joined the state and federal tax claims.
Godley declined to comment about what happened to cause such financial disarray. Until recently, she wasn’t shy to name who was responsible.
In court filings, Godley laid the blame for her corporate money troubles on the company’s former accounting director, Faith Sherman. Godley sued Sherman in Pulaski County Circuit Court, alleging that she misappropriated money as part of a conspiracy. The lawsuit began with a bang in 2017 and ended with a whimper in January when Godley withdrew her case. According to Sherman’s lawyer, Verona Swanigan of Little Rock, that happened because she was on the brink of obtaining a summary judgment against Godley.
Swanigan said Godley never provided any evidence to support her allegations, never could produce a dollar amount of allegedly misappropriated money and never could explain the alleged conspiracy to defraud her.
Swanigan believes Godley used the lawsuit against her client to deflect re-crimination from herself.
“We don’t know what really happened,” Swanigan said. “We do know she has a history of blaming her employees when money ends up coming missing, or so she claims. It’s a game she plays with the government to keep them from looking at her.”
According to court filings by Sherman, Goddess Products didn’t remit sales taxes from 2011-15 or payroll taxes from 2010-15.
“The funds that should have been used to pay the taxes were not available in the bank account upon my arrival and employment with the company,” Sherman said in court filings.
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In a sworn affidavit dated Dec. 16, Sherman said that Godley asked her to alter documents related to taxes and finance. However, she refused.
“Mrs. Godley failed to pay her taxes multiple times and did not use funds that she received from the government in accordance with the terms for which she was required to allocate the funds …”
“I did not have access to the bank accounts, funds or checks of Goddess Products Inc. Mrs. Godley was the sole party able to write and sign checks and to make deposits of the funds for Goddess Products Inc.”
Godley disputes Sherman’s allegations.
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