Pilot - Flying J Knoxville Headquarters locked down by FBI -

FBI locks down truck stop Pilot Flying J HQ; family business of Browns owner, Tenn. governor

[link to www.washingtonpost.com]

Hope this isn't an excuse to close down the Pilot Truck Stops. That's all we need now...

Good thread OP but eyes are else where right now.

I'll add four days ago Haslem sold his stake in the Steelers.

It took a lot longer for him to ditch his stake then most people expected.

[link to www.behindthesteelcurtain.com]

Remember this thread? Is it related?

Didn't this happen at a PILOT truck stop? ??

Ohio, north of Eaton on route 127 , just south of I70

OP said a BLACK GMC and men in Black with guns took away a Sheriff.

Thread: Men in black jumpers & black GMC's pull Sheriff over & take him away at exit 10 on.127 Eaton, Oh

Haslam sends letters to Pilot Flying J employees after raid

[link to www.wkyc.com]

FBI, IRS still mum on Pilot Flying J raid

"This is not the first time Pilot has come under the government's microscope. Four years ago, Pilot settled a price gouging suit brought by Tennessee's Attorney General. Pilot settled similar suits in Georgia and Kentucky."

[link to www.wbir.com]

Today's Update:

"Haslam did confirm that the criminal investigation centers on the application of customer rebates."

[link to www.wkyc.com]

Four different warrants served, one to each of the companies three building and one to the company’s accounting firm. Majority if info collected was electronic transactions according to employees.

No link, heard it live on the air.

Looks like jail time to me if this plays out like it is sounding & I doubt he will be able to keep the football franchise if convicted on top of it!

UPDATE: Federal officials have unsealed the search warrants used in Monday’s raid on Pilot Flying J headquarters in West Knoxville.

A confidential informant working with federal agents has alleged that a rebate fraud scheme at Pilot Flying J occurred with the knowledge of top executives, including CEO Jimmy Haslam, according to an affidavit made public on Thursday.


[link to www.knoxnews.com]

I know a lot of real news is going on but still updating this.




This below is from the day after the raid.

Here is the new press conference from yesterday, Friday 4/19.



Snip; Cleveland Browns owner and Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam on Friday again denied any wrongdoing and said he wasn't stepping aside, even as federal authorities alleged that he was aware of a widespread scheme to defraud customers of the truck stop chain.

According to court documents, sales team members said Haslam, who is the older brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, was aware of at least some instances of employees withholding diesel price rebates and discounts from Pilot customers to boost the company's profits and sales commissions.

Haslam would not answer a reporter's question about whether he had been involved in meetings where rebate fraud was discussed. He shrugged off suggestions he might step down.

"I thought to myself, `Well, why would I do that?' Candidly, I haven't done anything wrong, No. 1,'' Haslam said at the company's headquarters in Knoxville. "No. 2, if there's ever a time the company needs our leadership, it's right now.''

Leaders of the sales team derided some clients as unsophisticated, lazy and undeserving of rebates, according to transcripts of secretly recorded conversations.

FBI special agent Robert H. Root said in an affidavit that the practice was known by a variety of euphemisms including "jacking the discount,'' "manual rebates,'' and "screwing'' the customer.

No charges have been filed in the case. Pilot, a privately-held company that posted $29 billion in revenues in 2012, is the largest diesel retailer in the country.





Read More: [link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com]



Read this if you care about the subject; [link to www.knoxnews.com]

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/20/2013 12:43 PM

Waiting for a preconference in the next hour from Jimmy.

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/22/2013 12:32 PM

Press conference pushed back another 90 min from now.

Snip; Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam said Monday that several members of the company's direct sales team have been put on indefinite administrative leave following last week's FBI raid of corporate headquarters.

"Yesterday, we placed on administrative leave several members of our diesel fuel sales team and, on an interim basis, we are restructuring that team pending further investigation to get control of that operation and restore confidence to our customers.

Haslam did not take questions.

The move was one of several steps announced Monday.

Haslam said the company has identified a person with a national reputation and Justice Department experience to conduct an independent investigation, and that the person will report to the company's board rather than to Haslam.


[link to www.knoxnews.com]

Lotta IRS agents there too.
Probably important.

BREAKING
Snip; KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Cleveland Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam faces a temporary restraining order expected to be filed Thursday. It would prevent Haslam and his company from contacting trucking companies who allege they were cheated.

On April 15, the FBI raided Haslam's Pilot Flying J headquarters in Knoxville. A federal affidavit accuses the truck stop chain in a widespread scheme to defraud customers using rebates.





[link to www.newsnet5.com]

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/24/2013 10:33 PM

Pilot Flying J was founded as Pilot Travel Centers on September 1, 2001

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/25/2013 06:06 AM

Little info in here.

Snip;The affidavit says FBI and IRS agents are investigating charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud.



Snip; The company is the nation’s largest chain of truck stops and travel centers and the sixth-largest privately owned company in America.

[link to www.cleveland.com]

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/25/2013 06:05 AM

The Haslams are one scum-bag family. His brother Bill is governor of the State of Tennessee. Gov. Haslam is one of Bloomberg's gun grabbers:

From the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

On the air at Steve Gill's, Mr. [Bill] Haslam non-explains his participation in the anti-gun Mayor's Alliance Against Guns. AC has the audio. Short version: they said it was good so I signed up.

He had good talking points but the facts are he's a member of an anti-gun group. And he was too lazy to check.

[link to blogs.knoxnews.com]

The old man Haslam, who played football at UT back in the 1950's started out with one service station back in 1958. He now owns a chain of Pilot Travel J centers that have truck stops at Interstate rest stations. Last time I heard they had 11,000 employees.

They are reportedly the sixth-largest privately held company in the US. You don't go from one service station to mega wealthy in one lifetime.

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.
[link to money.cnn.com]


I live in Knoxville [Pilot is based in Knoxville]. Jimmy Haslam was on the radio the other day. It sounded like he was blaming the whole thing on his employees.

He must have stolen money from the wrong person/company. I hope they nail his sorry backside to the wall.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he met with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam on Tuesday about the federal investigation into his family’s truck stop chain.

The FBI alleges widespread fraud of customers at Pilot Flying J, the country’s largest diesel retailer.


Haslam has said he won’t step aside from the Browns or as the company’s CEO.


Asked at a pre-draft event Wednesday if he was concerned, Goodell said ‘‘of course when you have that type of thing.’’


Goodell added: ‘‘Jimmy’s doing everything he’s asked. He’s cooperating. He wants to make sure that he’s doing all the right things in that regard, and he’s assured us he’s going to.’’


[link to www.boston.com]

more suits


[link to www.tennessean.com]

This is taking a strange twist.


Vid at first link!

Snip; A judge denied the request of a Georgia attorney to prevent Pilot Flying J officials from contacting customers who may been impacted by an alleged rebate scam.
[link to www.wbir.com]


Snip; NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Knoxville judge on Monday rejected a claim that Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam is tampering with potential witnesses in a lawsuit stemming from an FBI raid on the country's largest diesel retailer.

Knoxville Circuit Judge Harold Wimberly denied a motion by Atlantic Coast Carriers Inc. of Hazlehurst, Ga., to block Haslam, who also owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns, from contacting customers who the FBI court alleges were short-changed on their fuel rebates by Pilot.

The FBI alleges members of Pilot's sales team deliberately withheld rebates to boost Pilot profits and pad sales commissions. No criminal charges have been filed.

Pilot spokesman Tom Ingram said the privately owned company is delighted by the ruling.

"There was absolutely no proof of any wrongdoing by Pllot Flying J or its CEO Jimmy Haslam,'' Ingram said in a phone interview. "It was outrageous to suggest that a company cannot talk to its customers.

"It's equally outrageous to suggest that a CEO upon hearing that there may have been underpayments of rebates to his diesel fuel customers cannot reach out to those customers and say that if there's been any underpayments let's figure it out and let's correct it.''


[link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

Last Edited by Chrit on 04/30/2013 01:35 AM

Here we go, just broke 20 min ago

They are facing 20 year in jail. Read that last line I highlighted. They will try to get these guys to roll so they can take down the top brass.


Snip;Two Pilot Flying J sales executives pleaded guilty today to federal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud for their role in sending fraudulent rebate checks "to certain targeted Pilot customers,'' the charges said.

Arnold Ralenkotter, a regional sales director in Hebron, Ky., and Ashley Judd, an account executive in Knoxville, entered their pleas in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, Tenn. No dates have been set for their sentencing.

They became the first people charged in the two-year investigation of Pilot Flying, the company owned by Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.

The charges said the primary purpose of the conspiracy was to increase the commissions of Pilot's direct sales staff and increase the company's profits. Ralenkotter's home was one of several sites searched by federal agents in April. The main sites of the raid took place at Pilot Flying J's main offices.

Haslam has said he had no knowledge of the scheme, which is contradicted by a FBI affidavit used to obtain a judge's permission to search Pilot Flying J, Ralenkotter's home and other sites.

The charges say that Pilot Flying J had a mandatory sales meeting in Knoxville in November. Ralenkotter attended a breakout session in which a top Pilot sales official "encouraged and taught Pilot direct sales personnel how to defraud, without detection, some of Pilot's customers who chose to receive their discounts in the form of a rebate check.''


[link to www.cleveland.com]