Originally convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud, and witness tampering, former Flying J President Mark Hazelwood and two of his staff members are now free after a Tennessee court threw out their convictions, ruling that a secret audio recording of Hazelwood using racial slurs should not have been heard during his trial.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled 2-1 to overturn the conviction of Hazelwood, former Vice President Scott Wombold, and former regional account representative Heather Jones. The three had been found guilty in 2018 of a scheme that involved falsely promising fuel rebates and believing that truckers would be “too unsophisticated to catch on.”

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