Mark Hazelwood, the former president of Pilot Flying J who headed the company while it allegedly systematically defrauded trucking companies for nearly a decade in diesel purchasing contracts, has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for his role in the alleged scheme. He’s also been ordered to pay a $750,000 fine and serve three years of probation after his release from prison.
Judge Curtis L. Collier of the U.S. District Court of Tennessee issued the sentence on Wednesday.
Hazelwood was found guilty on three charges of fraud and conspiracy in February. Two other Pilot Flying J employees were also found guilty on conspiracy or fraud charges, and 10 others entered plea deals with prosecutors.
Pilot settled with 5,500 trucking companies in late 2013, agreeing to pay $85 million in sum to those companies. Pilot also agreed to pay the Department of Justice a fine of $92 million to settle the criminal investigation against it.
Agents from the IRS and FBI raided the company’s headquarters in April of 2013 after an internal informant working at Pilot Flying J’s Knoxville headquarters had recorded conversations of company personnel over a two-year period.
Pilot has said numerous times since that it has taken steps to right its wrongs and revive its relationship with the industry. It has also discontinued the practices that lead the fraud scheme and instituted operational changes “to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” the company told Overdrive in a statement in February.
Ever notice, it’s the little fraud people that get prosecuted, to the fullest extant of the law, while the perps getting away with billions, trillions are given tax incentives to screw us, a-gain!
The fuel rebate thing is why trucking companies even buy fuel from flying j and pilot truck stops, the way it works is the more fuel the company buys from flying j or pilot, the more money they get back in rebates, this company president worked out some kind of a scam to steal points from the companies, and divert the cash to himself and others without the companies even being aware it was happening.
This piece of shit was getting away with it for years, finally got caught. What amazes me is how the companies weren’t figuring this out earlier, they just accepted the rebate for whatever it was, zero forensic accounting. It comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year depending on the amounts of fuel purchased.
Really lousy accounting on the part of the companies that were ripped off.
Dam thief should get his head caved in from all the people he ripped off
He’s lucky he’s behind bars
Or he could be facing a mob of drivers and companies that want a piece of him
Mark Hazelwood….I wonder if he’s any relation to Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who piloted the Exxon Valdez…
Seems fitting that they both had a crash involving oil.
they probably went to the same masonic lodge too.
“Pilot also agreed to pay the Department of Justice a fine of $92 million to settle the criminal investigation against it.”
On what basis do they (DoJ) claim damages against THEM by Pilot???
BLATANT THEFT.
Nothing less is expected of them these days, however.
And if Pilot is so willing to pay that much out
It seems quite obvious that they too have been screwing their customers pretty hard
I’m certain that all that ‘fine mammon’ is going to improve the economy for us poor folk.
And pigs can fly, too.