OMAHA, Neb. — Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway says the billionaire Haslam family tried to bribe at least 15 executives at the Pilot truck stop chain with millions of dollars to get them to inflate the company’s profits this year because that would force Berkshire to pay more for the Haslams’ remaining 20% stake in the company.
The Berkshire claim in a counter lawsuit filed this week comes after the Haslam family — which includes Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam — accused Berkshire of trying to understate Pilot’s earnings this year by changing its accounting practices.
A hearing on Berkshire’s counter lawsuit is planned for Thursday. The Haslams’ lawyers and a representative for the family didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Berkshire said in a court filing that it only became aware this month of the Haslams’ attempts to bribe executives who used to work for the family at the company Jim Haslam — Jimmy and Bill Haslam’s father — founded before Berkshire became the majority owner at the start of this year. A senior executive who had been promised a bonus revealed that to the current Pilot CEO, who Berkshire appointed after it took over, according to the filing.
Berkshire said Jimmy Haslam offered to personally pay bonuses to the executives that would far exceed their annual salaries based on the price the family received for its remaining stake. Berkshire redacted the number of employees it believes agreed to accept bonuses, but it said Haslam made the offer to about 15 employees at a country club dinner in Knoxville, Tennessee, in March and repeated that offer to at least four other high-level executives. Pilot’s former CEO also extended the offer of under-the-table payments to at least 10 other executives in April, according to Berkshire’s filing.
It’s not clear exactly how much money is at stake because some of the figures in the lawsuits have also been redacted, but the Haslams said…
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