Daimler Truck sues ex-fleet manager over alleged $3.8M embezzlement

Daimler Truck North America is seeking roughly $6.6 million in damages from a former employee and his wife, accusing the pair of embezzling nearly $3.8 million from the truck maker over five years. The lawsuit, filed Oct. 12 in Washington County Circuit Court in Oregon, names Terry S. Watson, a former member of Daimler's test fleet operations in Portland, and his wife, Krystal Watson, as defendants. Case No. 26CV57242 remains open, according to court records reviewed by FreightWaves.

The figure at the heart of the complaint — $3.8 million — works out to an average of more than $63,000 per month over the alleged five-year span. That is a striking run rate for a single employee armed with corporate cards and falsified paperwork, and it frames the central question the case now poses: how the scheme allegedly went undetected for so long inside one of North America's largest commercial vehicle manufacturers.

What does the complaint allege?

Watson worked in Daimler's Portland test fleet operations from 2016 until November 2025, when the company terminated him after discovering suspicious financial activity, according to published reports. The company filed suit roughly ten months later.

The allegations, as reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive and KOIN, include:

• Corporate credit card charges and falsified expense reports covering personal vacations to Europe, Las Vegas and Legoland
• Company funds paying for landscaping, household services, child care and restaurant deliveries
• Personal use of company fuel cards
• Contractors allegedly directed to bill Daimler for construction and landscaping work performed at Watson's residence in Hillsboro, Oregon

Krystal Watson, according to KOIN's reporting on the lawsuit, participated by using company credit cards for personal purchases and providing receipts to her husband that then fed into the falsified expense reports.

Daimler's damages demand of approximately $6.6 million — well above the alleged $3.8 million taken — suggests the company is pursuing statutory or punitive multipliers, though the reported filings do not spell out the calculation. The gap between the two numbers is itself worth watching as the case proceeds.

What has been verified — and what hasn't?

A caveat belongs here, and it is a material one. FreightWaves has requested the original complaint from Washington County Circuit Court, and the news outlet states plainly that the allegations described in published reports have not been independently verified against the complaint itself. The details of the Las Vegas trips, the fuel cards and the Hillsboro construction work come from secondary reporting, not from the primary document.

No criminal charges appear in the record as reported. A civil complaint is an accusation, not a finding; the defendants have not, in the public reporting to date, had their side of the story heard. Whether the Watsons have retained counsel or responded to the suit is not addressed in the published accounts — an absence readers should weigh.

Why it matters for the industry

Daimler Truck North America, headquartered in Portland, manufactures commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses brands, among others. For a company of that scale, $3.8 million is a rounding error on the balance sheet — but the mechanism alleged is the concern. Corporate cards, fuel cards and contractor billing are controls common to every fleet operator, carrier and manufacturer in the sector.

If a test fleet operation in a major OEM's headquarters city could allegedly absorb five years of personal spending — from European holidays to Uber Eats deliveries — before anyone flagged it, the episode raises an uncomfortable question for every freight finance department: what would our own exception reports catch, and how long would it take?

The case remains open in Washington County Circuit Court. Until the complaint itself surfaces or the defendants respond, the $3.8 million figure stands as an allegation — one that will test both Daimler's internal controls and the strength of its evidence in the months ahead.