Athletic apparel company Adidas has launched an investigation into allegations of "compliance violations" in China after receiving an anonymous letter earlier this month accusing local executives of embezzling "millions of euros," according to news reports.
Adidas confirmed it had received an anonymous June 7 letter indicating potential "compliance violations" in China, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported.
The shoe and sportwear maker said it was investigating the matter together with external legal counsel, the news outlets reported.
Chinese state media outlet Jiemian last week reported that an anonymous group of whistleblowers, who called themselves employees of Adidas China, had sent the letter containing the allegations to the company's German headquarters.
The letter, which was published by Jiemian but also widely circulated on social media, accused senior executives and several staff members of embezzlement and receiving bribes from suppliers in the form of cash and real estate, and of taking kickbacks from celebrities and advertising agencies.
One senior executive was also accused of workplace bullying, such as swearing at subordinates, and of nepotism.
The whistleblowers said that if Adidas did not address the issues brought up in the letter, the matter would be disclosed to external media and "legal departments."
Greater China, which encompasses mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, makes up 15% of Adidas' sales, according to its 2023 annual report.
The German brand is the second-largest sportswear brand in China, behind Nike.
Adidas' Greater China sales grew 8% in 2023, after declines between 2019 and 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and a backlash in China against Western brands which refuse to use Xinjiang cotton. Activists say cotton produced in Xinjiang often involves forced labor.
Adidas regularly engages popular Chinese celebrities to be its brand ambassadors, including singer and actor Jackson Yee, popular Chinese rapper Gali and Dilraba, a popular Chinese singer of Uyghur descent.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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