A fired Nike executive has been indicted on federal charges, accused of defrauding his former employer by using its software to grant two outside companies he operated much higher discounts than the sportswear giant allowed for even its best wholesale customers.
David Reichert worked for Nike for nearly 15 years as a sale account executive in its apparel division. He was fired in July 2014, according to court documents.
The division where Reichert had worked booked purchase orders from wholesale customers on a computer system that ran on software located in California.
While employed at Nike, Reichert operated two outside athletic apparel companies, both based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Unbeknownst to Nike, Reichert was managing his outside companies' accounts with Nike, according to a federal indictment.
Reichert is accused of hiding his ownership roles in the two other companies by forging the signature of his business partner on checks paid to Nike for merchandise his companies bought, the indictment alleges.
As a senior account executive, Reichert entered orders into the Nike software system. The computer system assigned a default discount rate to every Nike customer, typically between three and seven percent, depending on the customer's size and standing, according to federal prosecutors.
Reichert was able to override the default discount on orders that he entered for his own two businesses, and issue much larger discount ranging from 25 to 65 percent off- five to 10 times greater than the discounts Nike "allowed for even its best wholesale customers,'' the indictment alleges.
Reichert's athletic apparel businesses were called JJL and Fan-a-Mania.
The fraud occurred between November 2012 and May 2014, according to court records.
Reichert is charged with two counts of wire fraud. The indictment was unsealed Wednesday afternoon.
Reichert has been summoned to make his first court appearance in U.S. District Court in Portland on Aug. 9, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian