Months after federal agents raided its Knoxville, Tenn., headquarters over charges that it withheld millions in diesel fuel rebates from customers at its truck stops, Pilot Flying J says it is paying the companies that were cheated.
From Nashville, Blake Farmer of member station WPLN filed this report for our Newscast unit:
"The family-owned company is accused of withholding millions of dollars' worth of diesel rebates. Seven members of the Pilot Flying J sales staff have pleaded guilty to fraud charges, and others have been put on administrative leave during the federal investigation.
"CEO Jimmy Haslam -- who also owns the Cleveland Browns -- says the shortchanging represents a fractional part of the company's $30 billion in annual sales. He says most has been paid back, with interest. Still, he says the episode has taken a toll.
"'This has been a very humbling, very embarrassing time for myself, for our family and for Pilot Flying J. There's no other way to say it.'"
Citing a tentative settlement deal that was reached in July, The Cleveland Plain Dealer provides details on the money at stake.
"The 38-page agreement suggests what Pilot Flying J, the nation's biggest truck-stop chain, could pay out in the settlement: more than $40 million in principal payments to trucking firms, with attorneys' fees adding up to $14 million more," the newspaper reports.
Pilot Flying J is No. 6 on the most recent Forbes list of the largest private companies in the U.S., just ahead of Publix. The company says it operates 650 truck stops; it was formed by a 2010 merger between Pilot Travel Centers and Flying J.
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