Jerome Bettis-owned trucking company sues EQT for race discrimination

A trucking company owned by former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis and his brother is suing EQT for race discrimination, contending that it ended contracts with them after a new CEO took over last year.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court includes claims for violating the Civil Rights Act and breach of contract.

It alleges that the certified, minority-owned business, IntegrServ, has suffered damages of at least $66 million.

“EQT’s conduct in racially discriminating against IntegrServ was motivated by evil motive and intent,” the lawsuit said. “EQT’s conduct also involves reckless and callous indifference to IntegrServ’s federally protected right to make and enforce contracts. …”

EQT, in a written statement Thursday afternoon, called the lawsuit “entirely without merit.”

“The fact is that EQT is demonstrably committed to service provider diversity,” the company said.

In its statement, EQT said that 12% of its supplier spending this year — approximately $40 million — has gone to more than 100 minority-owned businesses and that the contract with IntegrServ was terminated along with other contracts from non-minority-owned businesses to “drive efficiencies and accountability.”

“In addition, IntegrServ mismanaged its fulfillment of the contract, which led to numerous safety failures,” the statement said. “We are disappointed that IntegrServ has chosen to respond by making serious, unsubstantiated allegations against EQT management, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against this unwarranted lawsuit.”

According to the lawsuit, in 2017, EQT approached water-hauling company KMI, based in Clearfield County, to discuss forming a minority-owned business that would contract with the gas production company. EQT had recently made a priority of boosting supplier diversity.

KMI is owned, the complaint said, by Lynwood Keister, who is white.

At first, the lawsuit continued, Keister declined, saying that he felt it would negatively impact his business.

However, as part of the agreement, EQT told Keister it would partner him with a “high-profile Black partner to maximize the public-relations impact that the new company would have for EQT’s Supplier Diversity Program.”

It attempted a partnership with NBA Hall of Fame star Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Then, it proposed that KMI partner with Bettis’ company, Bettis Brothers Sand and Gravel, which he operated with his brother, John Bettis.

Following a meeting in December 2017, Keister, along with his general manager, Bradley Kratz, and Bettis Brothers formed IntegrServ. The brothers owned 51% of the company, with Keister and Kratz, who is white, sharing the rest.

They contracted with EQT, and were guaranteed work for at least 60 trucks per month, with EQT agreeing that because of the high volume of trucks, it was acceptable to subcontract out the work, the complaint said.

It went on to say that EQT promised at least a five-year deal, although the first contract was for 13 months.

According to the lawsuit, EQT’s annual diversity spending went from $73 million in January 2012 to $1.2 billion in 2018.

As part of the partnership, John and Jerome Bettis made public appearances on behalf of EQT’s supplier diversity program and actively helped the corporation recruit other minority-owned businesses.

“EQT bragged to the public about the Bettis brothers’ success in doing this,” the lawsuit said. “EQT’s plan worked as intended. Jerome Bettis — who is universally respected, admired and loved in Western Pennsylvania — was endorsing EQT’s commitment to diversity.”

Bettis, who played with the Steelers for almost a decade, is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At the end of its first year working together, EQT awarded IntegrServ the company’s Safety Award for excellence in safety, the lawsuit said.

IntegrServ and EQT entered into a new purchase order in April 2019, scheduled to run through February 2021, the complaint continued.

However, in July 2019 — after CEO Toby Rice won a proxy battle to replace three outgoing members of EQT’s board of directors — the company demanded IntegrServ reduce its rates by 10%.

In August, an IntegrServ truck had a rollover. There were no injuries, the lawsuit said, and no property damage outside of cleaning up production water.

Shortly after that, a driver for a minority-owned subcontractor for IntegrServ was found to have a handgun in his truck, according to the lawsuit. The subcontractor immediately confiscated the gun, informed EQT and fired the driver, the lawsuit said. IntegrServ filed a full report to EQT two days later.

On Aug. 22, 2019, the lawsuit said, EQT terminated its contact with IntegrServ.

Six days later, Keister and John Bettis attended EQT’s annual diversity supplier conference. Jerome Bettis appeared via video, honoring an earlier agreement they had, despite the termination of the contract, the complaint said.

When Keister entered the lobby, the lawsuit said, he introduced himself to Rice, the new CEO. Rice took him aside to have a private conversation.

Then, the lawsuit said, “Rice told Keister that every time he saw the IntegrServ logo on a truck, ‘it pisses me off. He’s [expletive] stealing my money.’ Rice told Keister that ‘I hate those contracts.’ ”

“Rice asked Keister how much Jerome and John Bettis invested in IntegrServ. When Keister responded that it didn’t matter how much the Bettis’ invested in IntegrServ, Rice snapped: ‘It [expletive] matters to me. He’s stealing my money.’

Rice then complained of “ ‘too many [expletive] sweetheart deals at EQT,’ ” and that he was going to “ ‘slash them,’ ” the complaint said.

The lawsuit continued that Rice viewed minority-owned contacts with EQT as “being tantamount to theft.”

When Keister complained that he now had no business with EQT, Rice responded, the lawsuit said, “‘I gotta help you. You got [expletive].”

Rice added, “ ‘We want to work with companies like yours that came from nothing,’ ” the lawsuit continued.

Safety violations were never mentioned by Rice when talking about terminating the contract with IntegrServ.

Later that day, the lawsuit said, when John Bettis approached Rice to talk to him, Rice said “the termination was regrettable but ‘EQT can’t have unsafe companies on the job.’ ”

The complaint continued that Keister received a call from EQT saying that his company, KMI, was “ ‘back in.’ ”

The lawsuit alleges that an attorney for EQT drafted an affidavit for Keister to sign, which said that IntegrServ failed because “ ‘it got too big with too many small operators that I could not control and had little to no experience hauling water.’ ”

Once Keister signed the affidavit, EQT issued a new purchase order with KMI to begin hauling water for the company, the lawsuit said.

“In effect, by replacing IntegrServ with KMI as its trucking contractor, EQT continued utilizing the same hauling services that it had previously utilized prior to termination of the IntegrServ Contracts, but only after it succeeded in excluding the two Black partners from participating in, or benefiting from, the business arrangement,” the lawsuit said.

A message left with Keister was not immediately returned.