Trustworthy businessman Jimmy Haslam.

As it turns out, greed is still good, Gordon Gekko.  After all, using ill-gotten gains, you just might make enough money to buy a professional sports franchise, where only the sleaziest of men can survive.  It’s just a shame it has to happen to the Cleveland Browns.  Pilot Flying J has agreed to pay a $92 million dollar penalty to the US government to make up for stealing $56 million from customers in a fuel surcharge scheme.  Pilot Flying J is the merged company between Pilot and Flying J.  The J in Flying J is Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam.  He’s the brother of Tennessee governor Bill Haslam.

“We, as a company, look forward to putting this whole unfortunate episode behind us, continuing our efforts to rectify the damage done, regaining our customers’ trust, and getting on with our business,” said a statement from  Haslam released by Pilot.  “We’ve been committed from the beginning of this to doing the right thing, and that remains our commitment.”

Haslam himself may still face charges, and the government will use its position of dominance to ensure that Haslam and his company cooperate with federal authorities and keep their nose clean, so not all is over yet, but it looks like the worst is passing as we speak.  It’s a good thing it happened the same week that LeBron James returned to Cleveland, right?  Now I imagine nobody will pay any attention while the NFL looks the other way on this whole fraud thing.

Tags: jimmy haslam, pilot flying j, cleveland browns, cleveland browns owner jimmy haslam, jimmy haslam to pay million to government, pilot flying j penalty, pilot flying j to pay million to the us government, penalties, pilot flying j penalty, fuel surcharge fraud

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