CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The former Pilot Flying J executive who spent three days as a government witness hoping to garner a drop in the prison term he faces was once too afraid of jail to fleece the government, secret recordings showed.

Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam not only knew one of his vice presidents was ripping off truckers but “loved it,” jurors heard a subordinate claim Nov. 14 in a secret recording.

The temperature inside the Chattanooga, Tenn., federal courtroom Nov. 13 matched the temperature of the relationship between a Pilot Flying J executive on board with a fraud scheme and a salesman who wasn’t — frosty.

With the owner of a trucking company thumbing his nose at anything Pilot Flying J offered to garner his loyalty, Arnie Ralenkotter went straight to the top of the truck stop giant, emails showed.

Jurors in the Pilot Flying J fraud trial are getting an earful of insider stories about the truck stop giant and the trucking industry.

Jurors in the ongoing Pilot Flying J fraud trial haven’t yet seen the government’s two star witnesses, but the attorney for the truck stop giant’s former president is already painting portraits of the pair as a ruthless corporate climber and a jealous snitch.

Former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood may be the highest-ranking member of the truck stop giant charged in a $92 million fraud scheme, but his defense attorney made clear Nov. 7 just who was in charge.

Mark Hazelwood wasn’t hurting for money. Neither was Pilot Flying J, his employer and the nation’s largest diesel fuel retailer.

Jurors in a Chattanooga courtroom will be going inside what the nation’s largest diesel fuel retailer concedes was a corrupt sales division where fraud was taught and celebrated.

The man dubbed by the FBI as the architect of the diesel fuel rebate scam by executives of the nation’s largest truck stop chain has struck a deal to confess, court records show.