A decade ago, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam avoided prosecution as part of a wide-ranging probe (that repeatedly hit paydirt) over his truck-stop company’s habit of shortchanging customers. Now, Haslam is potentially in hot water again.
As originally reported by Bloomberg.com, federal prosecutors in New York City are investigating whether Haslam offered payments to Pilot executives in order to boost the value of the remaining 20 percent of the company to be purchased by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
The probe, per the report, was first disclosed at a court hearing involving a civil lawsuit aimed at setting the value of the remainder of Pilot. The more it is worth, the more Buffett will pay. The less it is worth, the less Haslam’s family will receive.
At a recent hearing, lawyers for Haslam attacked the allegation of bribery, which was made in the latter stages of an expedited process to resolve the question of Pilot’s value.
“It was a retaliatory responsive measure, not something that they did with alacrity, as one would expect in an expedited case like this one,” Pilot attorney Brad Wilson said during the hearing, per the transcript. (In English, “If this helps them, why did they wait so long to bring this up?”)
“These allegations are meritless, as we have previously stated,” Wilson added. “They are an invention by defendants, who have . . . no cogent response to a valid contract claim. If Berkshire chooses to pursue those allegations after these expedited proceedings conclude, Pilot will debunk them. But all of that is for another day.”
Many issues could be for another day. Whether prosecutors find any evidence of bribery by Haslam is one of those issues. Whether Berkshire is simply throwing crap at the wall to distract from the real issues is another.
Whether Haslam might have any legal rights against Berkshire for potentially creating a phony issue is yet another. As a prominent former New York City politician recently learned to his nine-figure chagrin, lies have very real consequences.
