adidas Director Arrested By FBI For Corrupting NCAA
The FBI have just arrested adidas' global marketing director, Jim Gatto, for corrupting the NCAA basketball league. The USA Department of Justice have indicted Gatto and a crew of league officials on three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering conspiracy. The details are bogged down in a litany of legal jargon, but in layman’s terms, Gatto is charged with using company money to bribe high school basketball players to enrol at adidas-sponsored colleges. And they weren’t small-time payments or product drop-offs – of the many players involved, one allegedly banked more that $150,000 USD.
The Three Stripes have released a statement regarding the charges:
'Today, we became aware that federal investigators arrested an adidas employee. We are learning more about the situation. We’re unaware of any misconduct and will fully cooperate with authorities to understand more.'
You can sift through the full criminal complaint here: