Three more employees with Knoxville-based Pilot Flying J pleaded guilty yesterday to scheming to defraud trucking companies out of rebates. Under that scheme, Pilot executives manually reduced fuel rebates on diesel purchases owed to trucking companies they thought would not catch the inconsistency. A federal investigation continues and has so far resulted in plea deals for five employees since a raid on the company’s headquarters on April 15th. Holly Radford, Jay Stinnett, and Kevin Clark pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Arnold Ralenkotter and Ashley Judd pleaded guilty last month. All five have promised to testify against others in the case.
CEO Jimmy Haslam is the brother of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. The company was started by their father, James Haslam, and is the nation's largest truck-stop chain.
