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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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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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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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 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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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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Defense attorneys for the highest-ranking Pilot Flying J executive charged in a fuel rebate scandal say former president Mark Hazelwood was too busy doing his job to be involved in the scheme, reports the Knoxville News-Sentinel. That also goes for CEO Jimmy Haslam, defense attorneys say. Jimmy Haslam, who has not been charged, is the brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and owner of the Cleveland Browns football team. The truck stop giant is a Haslam family business. Gov. Haslam is no longer involved in its daily operations. The trial of Hazelwood and three others started last week on Monday in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga and is expected to last until at least late December. Former vice president of sales Scott Wombold and regional account representatives Heather Jones and Karen Mann are also standing trial in Chattanooga on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Hazelwood and Wombold deny involvement in the scheme and Jones and Mann have said they simply followed orders. In secret recordings made by a sales employee for investigators, Hazelwood’s voice can be heard in talk of the scheme. Haslam’s voice is not heard in any recordings that have been released. Prosecutors say Pilot…
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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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