Adidas is investigating bribery allegations in China, FT says

Adidas AG has launched an internal investigation into allegations of bribery at its China business following a whistleblower complaint accusing senior staff of embezzlement, according to the Financial Times.

The anonymous letter named several Chinese employees, including a senior manager involved with Adidas’s marketing budget in the Asian country, the newspaper reported.

Adidas did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Bloomberg outside regular business hours.

According to the FT, the letter alleged that Adidas staff received kickbacks from external service providers. A second senior Adidas manager, who works in a different division in China, is accused of having received “millions in cash” from suppliers and physical items such as real estate, the report said.

The FT said that Adidas confirmed in a statement that it had received a letter on June 7 alerting it to “potential compliance violations in China.”

The company told the newspaper it was “committed to complying with legal and internal regulations and ethical standards in all markets where we operate” and that it was “intensively investigating this matter together with external legal counsel.”