By Walter F. Roche Jr.
A federal judge in Kentucky will hear key arguments Friday in suits filed by a handful of trucking companies who have charged that Pilot Flying J, the national truck stop firm, repeatedly cheated them out of millions of dollars in promised rebates.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar in Covington will include motions by Pilot, the national truck stop firm, and some of the individual defendants to have the suits thrown out.
Two of the trucking firms, Keystone Freight and National Retail Transportation, have charged that Pilot's top executive, James A. Haslam 3rd, knew of and in fact was the mastermind of a scheme to secretly and systematically reduce rebates promised to high volume users of Pilot's diesel fuels.
Haslam, owner of the Cleveland Browns and brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the rebate skimming scheme. An attorney for Pilot has termed the allegations "absurd."
Asked for comment a Pilot spokesman responded, "The plaintiffs have failed to offer any evidence or information to rebut the the conclusion that their claims against Mr. Haslam lack any factual support," adding the claims of Haslam's involvement were "exhorbitant, outrageous and false."
The remaining suits were merged before Thapar last year after dozens of other suits by trucking firms were settled via a class action case in Arkansas. Keystone, National Retail and a handful of other truckers declined to accept the $85 million settlement.
The suits followed an April 15, 2013 raid by FBI and IRS agents on Pilot's Knoxville headquarters. Subsequent filings in federal court outlined a scheme by top Pilot sales officials to reduce promised rebates to trucking firms whose executives were unlikely to notice.
In addition to the $85 million class action settlement, Pilot agreed to pay $92 million to the federal government to settle allegations related to rebates.
In a 38-page bill of particulars, attorneys for Keystone and National Retail charged that Haslam was directly involved in the scheme.
"Haslam never intended for Pilot to honor its
agreements with the plaintiffs," the filing states. "Pilot and Haslam
specifically benefited from the scheme."
Ten former Pilot sales officials already have entered guilty pleas on mail and wire fraud charges stemming from the rebate probe. They all await sentencing.
Thapar stated in a recent hearing on the suits that he hoped to rule on the pending motions by the end of January.
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