Search Results for: pilot flying j scam

Jimmy Haslam Knew About and ‘Loved’ Fuel Rebate Scam, According to Recording Played at Pilot Flying J Trial

Wendy Wilson

Jimmy Haslam, CEO of Pilot Flying J, knew about a fuel rebate scheme at his company and “loved it,” according to what an executive said in a secret recording that jurors heard in court Tuesday. Haslam, brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and owner of the Cleveland Browns football team, has denied knowledge of the widespread fraud scheme and has not been charged. Four former employees of the truck stop chain are currently on trial in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga. In all, 18 former employees were charged in the scheme and 14 pleaded guilty. The fraud involved shorting trucking companies on promised diesel fuel rebates. “He knew – absolutely,” John “Stick” Freeman, former Pilot Flying J vice president of sales, said of Jimmy Haslam in the recording played in court Tuesday, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Federal prosecutors released a transcript of the recording after Pilot Flying J was raided by federal agents in 2013, but Tuesday was the first time the recording was heard publicly. The recording was made by Vincent Greco, then a sales director for the company, who wore a wire for investigators. Freeman said in the recording that former president Mark Hazelwood also knew about the scheme.…

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Mastermind Of Pilot Flying J Rebate Scam And Three Others Sign Plea Agreements

Wendy Wilson

  Four former Pilot Flying J employees officially agreed Monday to plead guilty in the company’s diesel fuel rebate scam, reports WSMV Channel 4. John “Stick” Freeman, the mastermind of the scheme, along with John Spiewak, Vicki Borden and Katy Bibee, signed plea agreements filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. With Monday’s filings, there are now 14 sales staff members and executives who have agreed to confess and talk, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. Pilot Flying J, which is headquartered in Knoxville and operates hundreds of gas stations and convenience stores in the U.S. and Canada, is owned by the family of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam. The billionaire CEO is his brother Jimmy Haslam, who also owns the Cleveland Browns. Their father founded the company in 1958. Jimmy Haslam has not been charged in the scandal, although the FBI indicated in testimony and court records that he was a suspect, according to the News Sentinel. He has denied knowing about the scam. Gov. Haslam has not been involved in running the company for many years but has an ownership share in the business. He has said his holdings were placed in a blind trust when he…

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Federal Prosecutors Move to Drop Charges Against Former Pilot Flying J Fuel Executives

Cooper Moran
Flying J gas station, Nephi, Utah

Federal prosecutors indicated on Tuesday that they will drop the charges against former president of Pilot Flying J Mark Hazelwood and two other employees.

The motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee will formally end the attempt to prosecute Hazelwood and former Vice President Scott “Scooter” Wombold and former account representative Heather Jones.

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Lawyers for Pilot Flying J Ex-President Say Evidence Was Inaccurate, Incomplete

Jason M. Reynolds

The legal defense team for Mark Hazelwood announced it filed a brief presenting the court with newly found exculpatory evidence in support of his request for a new trial in the case surrounding truck stop chain Pilot Flying J. The brief was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee by Walden Macht & Haran LLP on behalf of the former president of the truck stop chain. The attorneys claim the government used a “doctored and materially incomplete transcript of a critical recording.” Hazelwood was found guilty by a jury in February of three out of the four federal charges brought against him – including conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and witness tampering – in connection with his alleged role in a multi-million dollar rebate scam to bilk customers out of $56 million. He was found not guilty on the remaining charge of wire fraud. The Walden Macht & Haran press release said, “The new evidence reveals that the government, either intentionally or unintentionally, used a doctored and materially incomplete transcript of a secret and critical recording at trial, thus fundamentally misleading the jury. The doctored transcript was the single most important piece of evidence used by…

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Judge Orders Pilot Flying J Prosecutors to ‘Make a List and Put the Guiltiest on Top’ As Sentencing Phase Begins

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U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier issued an order to federal prosecutors Tuesday to “make a list of convicted Pilot Flying J fraudsters and put the guiltiest at the top,” Knoxville News Sentinel reported, as 17 former executives and staffers begin the sentencing phase of their trials after being found guilty in their roles in a massive rebate scam aimed at fleecing truckers who participated in the ill-fated program. The order comes after a jury in the U.S. District Court in Chattanooga found former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood and ex-staffer Heather Jones guilty of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Former vice president Scott “Scooter” Wombold was acquitted of participating substantially in the scheme, but for a single count of fraud. Account representative Karen Mann was found not guilty the charges filed against her. Meanwhile, 14 other former executives and staffers plead guilty for their roles in the scam since the April 2013 raid of the Pilot Flying J headquarters in Knoxville. Knox news reports: Each of those 17, including Hazelwood, now must face Collier for sentencing hearings. The law requires that Collier assess each co-conspirator’s individual bad behavior and personal history. Collier also must decide each co-conspirator’s…

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GUILTY: Former Pilot Flying J President Found Guilty of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Witness Tampering

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Former Pilot Flying J president Mark Hazelwood was found guilty by a jury on Thursday of three out of the four federal charges brought against him – including conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and witness tampering – in connection with his role in a multi-million dollar rebate scam to bilk customers out of a total of $56 million. He was found not guilty on the remaining charge of wire fraud. Additionally, former Pilot vice president Scott Wombold and former direct sales person Heather Jones were found guilty of a single count of mail/wire fraud and wire fraud, respectively. The trio will learn their sentencing on June 27th in Chattanooga. Pilot Flying J is the 14th largest privately held company in the United States. A majority of the company’s stock is owned by the Haslam family, which includes company founder Big Jim Haslam and his sons, company CEO Jimmy Haslam and Gov. Bill Haslam. Earlier this year, Pilot Flying J announced it had completed a deal to sell a controlling interest in the company to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company. WBIR was outside the courthouse and spoke to Hazelwood’s attorney, Rusty Hardin. Reacting to the verdict, he told reporters, “We continue to believe he’s…

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CEO Jimmy Haslam Tries to Distance Himself and Pilot Flying J from Recorded ‘Vile, Despicable, Inflammatory Racial Epithets’ by Former Company President

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Pilot Flying J owner Jimmy Haslam broke his silence Friday to separate himself and the company from former president Mark Hazelwood, when the presiding judge in the ongoing, $92 million fuel rebate scam case described a previously sealed recording of Hazelwood as “vile, despicable, inflammatory” and “beyond the pale.” “I’m actually glad you brought that up,” Haslam told FOX News 8 during a news conference regarding the hiring of a new general manager for the winless Cleveland Browns. After establishing it was inappropriate to discuss the ongoing legal matter, he made an exception in this case saying Thursday’s revelations in court justify comment. Haslam said: “First, none of those individuals work for us anymore. No one who works for our company now was at that event [where Hazelwood was recorded]. That’s not how we act or do things. And those kind of remarks are intolerable.” The FOX News 8 reporter followed up asking Haslam about the company footing the hefty legal expenses for the former executives now on trial. Haslam replied, “without getting into too much detail, it’s traditional when employees of a company are sued or have a legal problem, until those employees plead guilty or are found guilty, the company pays…

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Pilot Flying J Held Employee Training Sessions on Defrauding Trucking Companies, According to Recording Played at Trial

Wendy Wilson

Pilot Flying J held training sessions to instruct employees on defrauding trucking companies of promised diesel fuel rebates, according to a secret recording played for jurors last week and covered by the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Four former employees of the truck stop chain are on trial in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga in connection with the scheme. A total of 18 former employees were charged in the scheme and 14 pleaded guilty. CEO Jimmy Haslam, brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and owner of the Cleveland Browns football team, has denied knowledge of the fraud and has not been charged, although a recording played for jurors earlier this month indicated he did know about it and endorsed it. Former sales director Vincent Greco was wired by investigators to make secret recordings, including of training sessions. The recording played in court last week featured a conversation between former vice president of sales Scott Wombold, one of the four currently on trial, and Jason Holland, an employee who was being introduced to the fraud scheme and expressing discomfort with it. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports: Wombold suggested that if Holland wasn’t comfortable lying, he could instead be vague with his trucking firm customers. He used an…

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Pilot Flying J Fraud Trial Delayed Without Explanation

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US District Judge Curtis Collier ordered the fraud trial of several Pilot Flying J ex-employees be delayed one week from October 31 to November 6, the Knowville News Sentinel reported Tuesday: A federal judge is delaying for a week the upcoming trial of the four former Pilot Flying J employees charged in a scam to defraud unsophisticated trucking firms. U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier on Tuesday ordered the trial of former Pilot Flying J president Mark Hazelwood and three others delayed from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, according to an entry in the federal court system’s database. The trial will be held in Chattanooga, where Collier is based. Unusually, the cause for the delay was not made available in the public record. The entry revealing the trial delay is labeled as a “notice of hearing,” but no such hearing notice appeared on the publicly available docket. The entry does not indicate that a hearing was held, only that the trial date was being changed. There is no request for a delay filed in the public database nor is there an order explaining the delay. However, the Knoxville News Sentinel noted that the judge mentioned his wife was having health issues that could…

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Report: Pilot Flying J ‘To Pay Ex-Staffers Legal Bills’ in Fraud Case Set to Begin Next Week

Tennessee Star Staff

The Associated Press is reporting that the board of Pilot Flying J, which is owned by the Haslam family, “has agreed to pay the ex-staffers legal bills,” in the upcoming fraud trial set to begin next week in Chattanooga: The truck stop chain controlled by the family of Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has publicly distanced itself from former employees charged with defrauding customers. But court records show the board of Pilot Flying J has agreed to pay the ex-staffers legal bills. Pilot Flying J has been under scrutiny in recent years because of a diesel fuel rebate scam. Fourteen former staffers have pleaded guilty, while another four — including the company’s former president — are scheduled to go on trial on Oct. 31. Court records indicate a May 2013 “undertaking agreement” in which Pilot agreed to cover attorneys’ fees and other expenses. They agreed to repay the money if they are convicted or lose on appeal. The FBI began investigating the Pilot Flying J scandal back in 2012, around the time CEO Jimmy Haslam purchased the NFL’s Cleveland Browns for a little over $1 billion. Jimmy Haslam has not been charged in the scandal,…

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How Will Gov. Haslam’s Gas Tax Proposal Impact His Family’s Pilot Flying J Company?

Tennessee Star Staff

Gov. Haslam’s proposal to increase the gas tax by 7 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 12 cents per gallon will have an impact on the family-owned Pilot Flying J company, which “operates over 650 travel centers in 43 states and Canada,” 31 of which are located in Tennessee, and is the 14th largest privately held company in the United States with $22 billion in annual revenues according to Forbes. “Located along interstates, the travel centers cater to both professional drivers and motorists selling gas, diesel, convenience store goods and fast food. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, the company was formed in 2010 when Pilot Travel Centers merged with Flying J to create a new company.In October 2015, the Haslam family announced that it had bought out the minority stake of private-equity firm CVC partners,” Forbes reports. Exactly what that impact will be has been the subject of scrutiny and debate. On the one hand, higher fuel prices are likely to have a dampening effect on the demand for gas and diesel fuel at Pilot’s retail facilities in Tennessee. That impact is not likely to be that great, since, as a percentage of the total retail price of these fuels, the tax…

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