Pilot Flying J Reaches Preliminary Settlement With Trucking Firms in Fuel-Rebate Case
Pilot Flying J said it has agreed to settle thousands of nationwide fuel-rebate fraud complaints in a U.S. District Court class-action suit that the truck stop operator’s CEO said was meant to “re-earn our customers’ trust.”
The company said Tuesday it has agreed to pay all costs related to customer claims and for auditing and legal fees and said it will pay customers all money owed plus 6% interest.
Pilot said the action will expedite the legal process by auditing the accounts of customers who received rebates or discounts dating back to 2008.
Federal authorities, including the FBI and IRS, raided the company’s Knoxville, Tenn., headquarters in April. Five Pilot Flying J employees have since pleaded guilty to defrauding trucking companies out of diesel fuel rebates.
“This is an unfortunate time for our customers and our company, but we remain committed to making things 100% right with our customers, to put systems in place to help ensure this does not happen again, and to re-earn our customers’ trust,” Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam said in a statement.
The preliminary agreement with eight trucking firms was signed by Judge James Moody of the U.S. District Court in Arkansas, who described the settlement as “fair, reasonable and adequate.”
The court’s order established a timeline and process for the case to proceed, including a requirement to distribute a notice of the settlement by July 31, and set a Nov. 25 hearing for final approval of the settlement.
“Pilot’s commercial customers will get every penny they are owed,” attorney Elizabeth Alexander, of the Nashville office of law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, who is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Truck owner-operator Paul Otto, who brought suit against Pilot in federal court in Nashville on behalf of himself and a nationwide class of Pilot’s commercial customers, said he was “very pleased” with the terms of settlement and that “Pilot is trying to make things right with its customers.”
