By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A bill of particulars filed in a series of suits against Pilot Flying J charges that the company president, James A. Haslam, was directly involved in a scheme to defraud truckers of millions of dollars in promised diesel fuel rebates.
The allegations were contained in a 38-page filing by attorneys for two New Jersey trucking firms, National Retail Transportation and Keystone Freight, submitted Friday in U.S. District Court in Kentucky.
The bill of particulars, which was requested by the judge presiding over the case, states that Haslam "instructed" his employees to advise the two firms that they would get specific discounts.
"Haslam never intended for Pilot to honor its agreements with the plaintiffs," the filing states. "Pilot and Haslam specifically benefited from the scheme."
Haslam, brother of Tennessee Gov. William Haslam, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the rebate skimming scheme.
Pilot's attorney, Aubrey Harwell, said he had not seen the filing, but strongly denied that James Haslam was involved.
"It is absurd to suggest that Jimmy Haslam instructed any Pilot employees to make any promise that he never intended for the company to honor. Any such allegation is absolutely inaccurate and totally contrary to the truth," Harwell wrote in an email.
The allegations come in a series of civil suits filed against Pilot, Haslam and other former Pilot executives that have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar.
The suits were prompted by a series of court filings following an April 15, 2013 FBI raid on Pilot's Knoxville headquarters. Subsequently 10 Pilot sales executives have entered guilty pleas to mail and wire fraud charges.
In a filing shortly after the 2013 raid, an FBI agent described a long term scheme by Pilot sales executives to cheat truckers, who they thought wouldn't notice, out of promised rebates. The filing included transcripts of secretly recorded Pilot meetings in which the scheme was described.
Pilot already has reached a $85 million settlement with some of its trucking clients in another suit filed in Arkansas. It also reached a $92 million settlement with the federal government.
A second bill of particulars filed by Osborn Transportation, an Alabama firm, does not name Haslam.
Both filings, however, charge that Pilot cheated the trucking firms out of promised rebates.
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