Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam Agrees to Deposition

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam has agreed to participate in a deposition after unsuccessfully appealing an order to do so, reported The Tennesseean.

"We can only guess that [the] plaintiff views a deposition of Mr. Haslam as a threat designed for some litigation advantage. We are disappointed by this gamesmanship, but eager to put it behind us," Stephen D. Brody, an attorney representing Haslam, wrote in a letter to an attorney suing Haslam. "For that reason, Mr. Haslam is willing to schedule a deposition in the civil cases pending against Pilot Corp., Pilot Travel Centers LLC and various individual defendants, so long as the deposition proceeds in the orderly manner outlined below."

Brody filed the letter alongside other court documents on Tuesday.

The documents state that Haslam will sit for the deposition under specific circumstances, which include: waiting to see how the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a case, and requiring that the deposition takes place over the course of a single seven-hour day. Brody also requested a coordinated effort across all of the pending civil cases so that Haslam is only deposed once, according to the news report.

The deposition is part of the case brought against Pilot Flying J by Wright Transportation, an Alabama-based trucking company, over allegations of fraud in Pilot Flying J's fuel rebate program, as CSNews Online previously reported. Haslam has not been criminally charged in the case and has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing since an April 15, 2013 federal raid on the company's Knoxville headquarters.

Brody also stated in the new court documents that the deposition should be delayed until an Alabama federal court rules on whether the case should take place in state or federal court. Oral arguments are scheduled for July 12.

Additionally, he said attorneys for Wright Transportation have not responded to his proposal for the deposition, which was originally scheduled for May 11 before being delayed in order to discuss the issue during a May 13 hearing.

Knoxville-based Pilot Flying J operates more than 650 retail locations in North America.