Former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood didn’t merely know his sales division was “infected” with a greedy plot to deceive and defraud trucking companies. He promoted the chief architect of the plot and made plans to grow the scheme, a federal prosecutor told jurors in Chattanooga Monday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton spent more than two hours Monday in closing arguments taking jurors on a trip back through the testimony and evidence he and fellow prosecutor David Lewen have been presenting since November against Hazelwood and three former subordinates.
The quartet are accused in a wire and mail fraud conspiracy that 16 other former staffers of the nation’s largest diesel fuel retailer already have admitted, including two who were granted immunity. Pilot Flying J’s board of directors also already has admitted criminal responsibility for a plot to lure small trucking firms to switch their business to the truck stop giant in return for discounts the sales staff never intended to fully pay.
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