Racist CEO caught bashing and singing about black people in secret recordings
On a secret recording the truck stop company owner is heard requesting a racist country song during a sales meeting.
The former president of truck stop giant Pilot Flying J was caught on secret recordings using racial epithets and singing along to a racist song.
On Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton played parts of the recordings for jurors in the wire and mail fraud case against former Pilot Flying J president Mark Hazelwood.
Hazelwood, along with Heather Jones and Karen Mann, is accused of promising big discounts on fuel to trucking companies in exchange for loyalty but not delivering on those promises.
Pilot Flying J’s board of directors has admitted criminal responsibility.
Racist recordings
According to Knox News, U.S. District Judge Curtis Collier called the recordings “vile” and “despicable.”
The recordings were secretly taped by former Pilot Flying J sales executive Vincent Greco, who had been working as a mole for the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Division.
During a meeting of executives in October 2012, Hazelwood can be heard on tape requesting a racist country song be played.
“Where’s our greasy (racial epithet) song?” Hazelwood asked.
The song, sung by David Allan Coe, describes a white man upset that his girlfriend broke up with him for a Black man. And apparently, Hazelwood and other executives knew all the words and sang along, including the racial slurs.
“It’s enough to make a man throw up. Sure is hard to figure how any decent girl could ever (expletive) a greasy (racial epithet),” the song says.
Prosecutors played the recordings to combat a defense strategy which claims Hazelwood was too much of a savvy businessman to engage in underhanded behavior like fraud.
Pilot Flying J responds
The truck stop company has since issued a statement in response saying that they were “very disturbed and appalled by the extremely offensive and deplorable comments recorded over five years ago involving a small group of (now) former sales employees. This kind of behavior is reprehensible, not tolerated, nor reflective of the guiding principles of Pilot Flying J … No current team member of Pilot Flying J was present or participated in this incident.”
