CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – Federal agents used a Pilot Flying J employee to try to get Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam to make incriminating comments on the telephone, but court testimony suggests Haslam was aware he was making the call at their behest.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports former sales executive Brian Mosher, who has pleaded guilty to participating in a widespread scheme to defraud trucking customers, testified Tuesday that federal agents showed up at his Iowa home in April 2013 and had him call Haslam to say, “Jimmy, we’ve been caught.”
Mosher said Haslam replied: “I understand there are some folks at your house,” and then handed the phone to a lawyer in Pilot’s legal department.
Haslam was not charged and denied any prior knowledge of the scheme. Fourteen other members of the Pilot sales department have pleaded guilty. The rebate scam caused the company to pay an $85 million settlement to scammed customers and a $92 million penalty to the government.
Pilot, the largest truck stop company in the U.S., had been promising rebates and price discounts to trucking companies as an incentive to continue buying fuel from their truck stops. But records show that the rebate program was complex and discounts varied by location, so it wasn’t always easy for customers to keep up with how much they were due from Pilot’s program.