A regional sales manager and a regional account representative are the latest to plead guilty in connection with the government's investigation of alleged fuel rebate fraud at Jimmy Haslam's family-owned truck stop chain. Janet Welch, a senior account manager in Pilot Flying J's Knoxville, Tenn.-headquarters, pleaded guilty this morning to conspiracy to commit a federal criminal offense in federal court in Knoxville. According to her plea, Welch, from 2008 to about April 2013, conspired with other Pilot employees to cheat Pilot customers out of fuel rebates and discounts they were owed. Welch attended a sales-training meeting on Nov. 19 and 20 at Pilot headquarters in which a sales director, during a "break-out session," taught Welch and others "how to defraud, without detection, some of Pilot's customers who chose to receive their discount in the form of a monthly rebate," according to a filing signed by assistant U.S. attorneys in the case. Station WATE-TV in Knoxville said Welch is being held responsible for cheating up to 50 customers in rebates totaling up to $1 million. Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
