Texas files charges against regional service station chain

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed charges against Petroleum Wholesale, L.P., Sun Development, L.P. and related defendants. According to a statement on the website of the attorney general, the regional service station chain was charged with “unlawfully defrauding their customers by diluting medium and premium grade gasoline with regular unleaded fuel.” The statement also explained that charges were filed “Because the premium gasoline sold at 143 of the defendants’ Texas-based locations were improperly diluted, the defendants are charged with falsifying octane levels, defrauding their customers and violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.” The “fuel dilution scheme” is also known as cross-dumping. The regional service station chain was charged with more than 1,000 instances of cross-dumping. In addition to these charges, the defendants were also charged with selling unbranded fuel at branded stations. (August 19, 2011)