CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Judge David Young of Franklin County Common Pleas Court has rejected Pilot Flying J’s attempt to have a lawsuit dismissed that is connected to the truckstop chain’s ongoing diesel rebate fraud case, reported Cleveland.com.
The lawsuit alleged that Pilot Flying J breached its contracts with the companies and fraudulently induced them into doing business with it for several years, as the companies believed they were getting agreed-upon fuel rebates.
Attorneys for two trucking firms, Columbus, Ohio-based FST Express Inc. and Birmingham, Ala.-based HB Logistics LLC, want to question the company’s CEO, Jimmy Haslam, under oath this fall.
Pilot Flying J’s attorneys said the trucking companies were attempting “to extract a windfall recovery from Pilot,” according to court documents cited by Cleveland.com.
Attorneys for Haslam’s family company said in court documents that a court-supervised internal audit showed Pilot Flying J owed FST $11,000. HB, according to the attorneys, owed Pilot Flying J more than $100,000. The attorneys said independent auditors confirmed the accuracy of the audit.
Cooper, the attorney representing the trucking companies, said the companies have retained auditors who are analyzing their finances. Cooper said he believes when the process is complete, each trucking company will be owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Cooper said he and attorneys for the two trucking companies have begun taking some depositions.
“Now, it’s time to obtain the testimony of Jimmy Haslam,’’ Cooper told the news outlet.
Several employees have been indicted or have pleaded guilty to a scheme to defraud customers over diesel fuel rebates since federal agents raided Pilot Flying J’s headquarters in Knoxville, Tenn., in April 2013.
Haslam, who also owns the Cleveland Browns football team, has denied knowledge of the rebate scheme and has not been charged with any crime. His brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, is no longer involved in running the business.
Pilot Flying J agreed to pay $92 million in fines and accept responsibility for the criminal conduct of its employees while the government agreed not to prosecute the company. The agreement required Pilot Flying J to comply with several conditions, including cooperation in the investigation of people who may have been involved in the fraud. It did not protect any individual from prosecution.
Most of the lawsuits against Pilot Flying J were resolved by a class-action settlement, in which the company agreed to pay out nearly $85 million to 5,500 customers.
The two trucking companies opted out of a settlement and brought the case to Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers and travel plazas in North America, has more than 650 retail locations under the Pilot and Flying J brands.
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