Three of the few remaining companies that still had ongoing lawsuits against Pilot Flying J over their alleged fuel rebate scheme have agreed to settle the case. This brings the total number of open lawsuits against Pilot concerning the fuel rebates down to just 4.
National Retail Transportation, Keystone Freight and Shoreline Transportation have all notified the court of their decision to take a settlement agreement offered to them by Pilot. The judge presiding of the case accepted the news and told them that if they couldn’t reach a final agreement by April 10th, that either party would be able to reopen the case.
If the two sides can come to an agreement, the settlement will dismiss all charges against both Pilot Flying J, and any individuals – including CEO Jimmy Haslam.
This settlement would only impact the charges brought by these three companies, however. Charges brought by the remaining four are still on the table, and though the federal government accepted a $92 million settlement from Pilot Flying J to absolve it of criminal responsibility last year, it can still freely bring charges against individuals within the company.
Haslam, owner of the Cleveland Browns football team and brother to Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, was personally the target of several counts in the litigation brought by the three settling carriers. It is rumored that he may be the target of federal investigation since ten senior Pilot employees and executives accepted plea bargains in exchange for their cooperation with the ongoing investigation into the scheme.
Since the news of the fuel rebate scam first broke following a raid of Pilot headquarters by the FBI in 2013, Haslam has denied any wrongdoing.
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What was the scheme!
You briefly tell about it here so new readers will understand.
https://www.thetruckersreport.com/f-em-early-and-f-em-often-says-pilot-flying-j-vp-about-customers/