Berkshire can’t use bribery allegations against Haslam in Pilot truck stop chain accounting dispute

By RANDALL CHASE
AP Business Writer

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge says Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will not be allowed to use allegations that billionaire Jimmy Haslam tried to bribe employees at the Pilot truck stop chain as Berkshire defends itself in a trial over Pilot’s accounting practices. Wednesday’s ruling came in a lawsuit in which Pilot Corp. claims that Berkshire, which holds 80% of Pilot Travel Centers, has tried to artificially depress the price it would have to pay for the Haslam family’s remaining 20% stake in the truck stop chain. Berkshire responded to the lawsuit by claiming that Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, tried to bribe more than two dozen Pilot employees to get them to inflate the company’s profits so Berkshire would have to pay more.