The fight between a couple of billionaires continues. And it continues to get uglier.
According to the Associated Press, a lawyer representing the interests of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway alleged in court on Thursday that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam admitted this week, while testifying under oath, that he offered bribes to Pilot executives in exchange for participating in an effort to inflate the value of Pilot Corporation.
In a deposition conducted on Tuesday, Haslam denied offering a “side payment” to Pilot Travel Centers controller David Clothier, lawyer Ryan Stottmann said in court, according to the AP. Stottman then claimed Haslam testified that he has an “informal agreement” with two dozen Pilot employees “to reinstate their lucrative executive bonus plan,” if/when the Haslams sell their remaining stake in the company.
The fight boils down to figuring out the value of the 20 percent of the company that Berkshire will be buying from the Haslams. The higher the value of Pilot, the more the Haslams get.
Stottman, per the AP, called the admission “stunning,” citing Pilot’s insistence that the bribery allegation is fabricated.
“Their own client has now confirmed under oath that these were not inventions, but that the shadow executive compensation plan actually exists,” Stottmann said.
Although the bribery angle won’t be part of an upcoming trial regarding the proper value of the remaining 20 percent of Pilot, the presiding judge has opted not to shut down ongoing efforts by Berkshire attorneys to prove that bribes (or something like bribes) were offered. It apparently will result in Haslam’s deposition being reconvened, so that he can be faced again with certain questions that his lawyers previously told him not to answer.
“Just because those are out of the case doesn’t mean that that information is not relevant in another way,” the judge said, per the AP. “I think it’s relevant to impeachment and bias. . . . I’ve heard no basis today for the instruction that the witness not answer the question, which in my view is a remarkable thing to happen in a Delaware deposition.”
That’s an “uh-oh” comment from the judge, as it relates to the Pilot/Haslam position. It’s an indication that things might not be going well. And it underscores the fact that, as Pilot lawyers acknowledged in a prior hearing, federal prosecutors are investigating the bribery allegations.
It could be a potato-potahto situation. There was no overt bribe, but there possibly was something more subtle and nuanced that operated like one.
Regardless, the fight continues. And if the bribery allegation sticks to Haslam, it remains to be seen whether the NFL will do anything about it. As explained in Playmakers (get the hardcover now for only $16.89), there’s a double standard when it comes to the league’s willingness to punish players and its hesitation to take action against owners.
UPDATE 12:40 p.m. ET: “Pilot continues to deny the false allegations in Berkshire’s counterclaims,” a Pilot Corporation spokesperson said in a statement provided to PFT. “The assertion of Berkshire’s counsel at Thursday’s court hearing that Mr. Haslam admitted Berkshire’s baseless allegations in his deposition is a gross mischaracterization of Mr. Haslam’s testimony.”
