After reaching a settlement with the companies who were part of the class action suit against them, Pilot Flying J says that they have paid back 95% of their customers, but that does not necessarily mean that they’ve paid back 95% of what they owe. The class action settlement saw them paying a total of $84.9 million to 5,500 companies, but that’s not all the money they owe from their alleged fuel rebate scheme.
The company that was featured prominently in the original FBI affidavit, Western Express, filed a suit against Pilot Flying J for $75 million and has just settled out of court. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, so the amount paid by Pilot is unknown.
Reports as to how many lawsuits Pilot is still contending with vary depending on the source, but there are companies who opted out of the class action suit who still need their day in court.
Among those companies is Wright Transportation, who has filed charges against both Pilot Flying J and members of the PFJ executive team. Recently a judge dismissed the charges that Pilot Flying J violated the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, along with a charge of unjust enrichment against Pilot Flying J, and charges that they violated deceptive trade practices. The judge did not dismiss charges of unjust enrichment against members of the Pilot Flying J executive team, including CEO Jimmy Haslam.
Next Story: Prime To Be Fined For “Blacklisting” and “Sabotage”
I’m not sure why this stuff happens. Did anybody at Pilot really think they would get away with it? They should have to pay back more than they owe.
Yet if you notice were the ones paying for it, they have increased prices on a variety of items just one example is the cost of a liter of soda, ignoring the 2 for $3 promotion they once did the bottles are now $.20 higher than any other stations.
What I don’t understand is why companies still continue to do business with PFJ! It s like nothing ever happened!!! I know it’s all about the bottom line and making a buck, but if my company said don’t go there anymore, I would be happy. The marketing team and CEO of TA/Petro and Hess had a GOLDEN opportunity to swoop in and make a lot of new business, but they just sat on their hands.
I agree but my only guess was due to TA/Petrol being so far into Wall Street way of thinking that they’re not looking at the biggest customer base truck drivers and companies. I completely agree because when this came down I honestly thought TA/Petro was going to do a big push to make everyone want to choose them over pfj same goes for Loves and Sapp Bros but we all know Sapp bros is the best place anyway!
I drive for a O/O and can fuel anywhere I want Pilot/Flying J is not a fuel stop for me so I stopped fueling there after all this went down.