Corporate Pilot Charged with Fraud

Bob Basham, a cofounder of the Outback Steakhouse chain and the majority owner of Tampa, Fla. aviation company Walkabout Air, is suing longtime Outback chief pilot Victor Slacter for fraud. Slacter, the director of flight operations for Outback parent company OSI Restaurant Partners, allegedly sold a Walkabout-owned Falcon 200 to a "straw" buyer for $1.05 million; then, charges the lawsuit, he secretly resold it for more than $2 million, pocketing the dirfference. Walkabout bills itself as a "full-service aviation company with capabilities ranging from aircraft management to charter and sales."