John Canfield
Site Team
Article excerpts in today's Wall Street Journal. Haslam's son Jimmy bought the Cleveland Brown football team last year.
"On April 15, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service in bulletproof vests executed search warrants at "Pilot Park" headquarters and seized binders, handwritten notes, emails and computer files. Three days later, a federal judge unsealed a 120-page affidavit, which alleged probable cause to believe there was a scheme by Pilot sales staff to defraud trucking-company customers that buy diesel at its truck stops by shorting rebate money Pilot owed them. A confidential informant told the FBI that Jimmy Haslam knew about the scheme, according to the affidavit.
The scandal has shaken a company that fuels the nation's trucking industry, and it has put the spotlight on a hard-charging family that says it borrows tactics from the football field to excel in the tough business of peddling diesel."......
"Lawyers and Pilot's trucking customers have filed 15 lawsuits against Pilot. Five Pilot sales employees have reached plea agreements with federal prosecutors. Both the company and its board are conducting separate investigations. The company's credit ratings have been put on negative watch for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Corp.
"Our legal counsel has advised us not to be surprised by class-action lawsuits and we've expected them and we'll defend them appropriately," said company spokesman Tom Ingram. Mr. Ingram said the plea agreements were "very disappointing."
Pilot was already under pressure to grow revenue, according to Jimmy Haslam. While it is the biggest retailer of diesel to the nation's trucks, its market has been contracting as truckers rely less on brand loyalty programs and more on logistics software to choose where to stop for fuel. "
"On April 15, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service in bulletproof vests executed search warrants at "Pilot Park" headquarters and seized binders, handwritten notes, emails and computer files. Three days later, a federal judge unsealed a 120-page affidavit, which alleged probable cause to believe there was a scheme by Pilot sales staff to defraud trucking-company customers that buy diesel at its truck stops by shorting rebate money Pilot owed them. A confidential informant told the FBI that Jimmy Haslam knew about the scheme, according to the affidavit.
The scandal has shaken a company that fuels the nation's trucking industry, and it has put the spotlight on a hard-charging family that says it borrows tactics from the football field to excel in the tough business of peddling diesel."......
"Lawyers and Pilot's trucking customers have filed 15 lawsuits against Pilot. Five Pilot sales employees have reached plea agreements with federal prosecutors. Both the company and its board are conducting separate investigations. The company's credit ratings have been put on negative watch for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Corp.
"Our legal counsel has advised us not to be surprised by class-action lawsuits and we've expected them and we'll defend them appropriately," said company spokesman Tom Ingram. Mr. Ingram said the plea agreements were "very disappointing."
Pilot was already under pressure to grow revenue, according to Jimmy Haslam. While it is the biggest retailer of diesel to the nation's trucks, its market has been contracting as truckers rely less on brand loyalty programs and more on logistics software to choose where to stop for fuel. "
