Thread: The truck stops here: Browns owner, Tenn. gov brothers to pay $92 MILLION fine

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  The truck stops here: Browns owner, Tenn. gov brothers to pay $92M fine
  
  PILOT FLYING J, THE TRUCK COMPANY OWNED by Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, has agreed to pay $92 million in fines for cheating customers out of promised rebates and discounts...

Feds: Company owned by Browns owner and Tenn. Gov. brother to pay $92M fine

Published July 14, 2014 FoxNews.com

FILE: Undated: A Pilot gas station.AP


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A truck-stop company owned by Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Haslam and Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has agreed to pay $92 million in fines for cheating customers out of promised fuel rebates and discounts, federal prosecutors said Monday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Pilot Flying J, the country’s largest diesel retailer, accepts responsibility for the criminal conduct of its employees, including 10 who have pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme, and agrees to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

“The terms of this agreement …demonstrate quite clearly that no corporation, no matter how big, influential, or wealthy is above the law,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Killian.

The agreement, signed Friday by company attorneys, also does not protect any Pilot worker or former worker from future prosecution.

Jimmy Haslam has said he was unaware of the scheme.

Through a spokesman, he declined an interview on Monday, but issued a statement: “We, as a company, look forward to putting this whole unfortunate episode behind us, continuing our efforts to rectify the damage done, regaining our customers’ trust, and getting on with our business.”

Gov. Bill Haslam, his brother, holds an undisclosed ownership share in the company but has said he is not involved in Pilot’s day-to-day operations.

Their father, James, started in company in 1958.

Pilot agreed in November to pay out nearly $85 million to settle claims in a class-action lawsuit with 5,500 trucking companies. Several companies have filed separate lawsuits against Pilot that are ongoing.

Federal officials said the company also must, under the so-called Criminal Enforcement Agreement, periodically report what it has done “to ensure that a system of internal accounting controls and other compliance procedures have been established to prevent fraudulent conduct from occurring again in the sale of diesel fuel.”

The joint FBI-IRS investigation resulted in search warrants being executed on April 15, 2013, at multiple locations, including Pilot’s headquarters in Knoxville.

Since that time, the 10 employees, including those with supervisory responsibilities, have agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation and entered guilty pleas to mail and wire fraud charges related to their involvement in the fraudulent reduction of diesel-fuel price discounts owed to Pilot customers.

In the agreement, Pilot confirmed that fraudulent conduct involving diesel fuel price discounts was prevalent within its Direct Sales group and carried out with the knowledge and participation of employees responsible for the operation and oversight of Direct Sales. And Pilot further confirmed that supervisory employees encouraged participation in discount fraud for the company’s benefit, federal officials also said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...-for-cheating/

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