The lawyer who wants to take the deposition of Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has now launched an effort to thwart the proposed nationwide settlement of the civil fraud claim against Haslam’s billion-dollar truck-stop company, Pilot Flying J.
Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mark Tate and other lawyers have set up a website aimed at persuading Pilot Flying J customers to retain their services. Those customers invariably would opt out of the proposed settlement and file their own claims.
With the proposed settlement providing only a refund of any money that was withheld from the customers, six-percent interest, and compensation for attorneys’ fees, those who push the matter through to a conclusion could obtain greater compensation, possibly including treble damages (depending on the legal theories pursued) and punitive damages.
To get the attention of trucking companies that may have been defrauded, the domain name is rebatebullshit.com.
“We wanted to do something that guys could remember who were driving a truck. We thought that was probably easiest,” Tate said, via the Plain Dealer.
The website explains that former FBI director Louis Freeh has been hired “to perform investigative and forensic accounting services,” and that Freeh’s organization “will play a large part in examining the documents uncovered in the case, determining the extent of the fraud committed by Pilot Flying J, and ascertaining the damages suffered by the victim’s [sic] of Pilot Flying J.”
Freeh conducted the internal investigation at Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky situation. Last year, the Saints hired Freeh to conduct an investigation regarding the bounty scandal and unsubstantiated allegations of game-day wiretapping by G.M. Mickey Loomis.
The new site features near the top of the page the logo that serves as the photo accompanying this article. We think it technically means bulls are prohibited from sitting on basketballs.