FBI, IRS agents raid Knoxville billionaire, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam

Haslam's brother Bill is governor of the state of Tennessee. Their father, Jim Haslam, is on the Board of Directors for the University of Tennessee.

The old man started out in the convenience mart business in 1958. He has had an unexplained meteoric rise in financial success.

The Haslams have been in favor of a state income tax.

Governor Bill Haslam was on Mayor Bloomberg's "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" when he was the mayor of Knoxville.

FBI agents at headquarters of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam's family business in Tennessee

[from the article]

Jimmy Haslam suddenly has bigger issues than the Cleveland Browns.

On Monday, federal agents descended on the Haslam family business in Knoxville in a raid the FBI described as part of an "ongoing investigation."

The headquarters of Pilot Flying J, a nationwide chain of truck stops and convenience stores, was locked down for much of the day.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported on its website that the entrance to the travel center operator's headquarters was blocked, media were barred from entering the campus and employees were being escorted off the campus.

A company spokeswoman told The Plain Dealer that the FBI arrived "sometime after lunch" but that no one knew why.

Knoxville television station WBIR-TV reported that FBI agents refused to allow traffic to enter the headquarters grounds, wouldn't answer questions and told their reporters to leave.

Marshall Stone, spokesman for the FBI's Knoxville office, said the investigation involves the FBI and the IRS, and they cannot comment on the nature of the probe, WBIR said.

[link to www.cleveland.com]

Haslam said that IRS agents were there:

Jimmy Haslam releases statement after FBI raid
[link to www.nfl.com]

Cleveland television station has telephone interview with Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy
[link to www.newsnet5.com]

In 1965 Marathon Oil Company loaned old man Haslam $4,000,000 on collateral of only $200,000. They own him and his boys lock, stock, and barrel.

Secrets of the truck stop king

If you do a lot of driving on the nation's highways, there's a good chance you've been a customer of James "Jim" Haslam II. Starting with one gas station in 1958, Haslam has built the largest chain of travel centers in North America. Knoxville's Pilot Flying J now has 496 outlets -- combination gas stations and retail stores -- that produced about $30 billion in sales in 2011, the latest data available from the closely held company. Over the years Haslam, now 81, has kept the company in the family. His son Jimmy Haslam III, 58, is chairman of Pilot and, at presstime, was about to be approved as the new owner of the Cleveland Browns football club. Former Pepsi (PEP, Fortune 500) exec John Compton is the new CEO. Another son, Bill, 54, is a former Pilot president and now the Republican governor of Tennessee. (The family is a big donor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.)

We didn't have a lot of capital, and Marathon Oil (MRO, Fortune 500) saw that we were expanding. Marathon was looking for people who would buy their products, and it offered to buy half our business, for $200,000 in 1965. It also loaned us $4 million to build new gas stations.

[link to money.cnn.com]