The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Krishna & Ahmed note adidas Tuesday “filed a criminal complaint" against former India Managing Dir SUBHINDER SINGH PREM and former COO VISHNU BHAGAT for “alleged financial and commercial irregularities.” The complaint, filed in India, accuses the former employees of “theft, fraud and accounting malpractices that resulted in the company taking a charge" of US$155M. adidas also said that “restructuring its business in India as a result of the alleged irregularities will lead to a further charge of $87M” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/24).
BOSS HOGS: In L.A., Pringle & Lin note last month, L.A. County Supervisor ZEV YAROSLAVSKY, City Council member TOM LABONGE, L.A. Memorial Coliseum Commission President DAVID ISRAEL and member WILLIAM CHADWICK “used their government position to claim a luxury suite” for BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’s sold-out concerts at the venue. The commission “kept the suite -- one of just two at the arena -- off-limits to public ticket sales for the pair of Springsteen concerts.” The panel also “reserved the suite for all UCLA basketball contests played last season at the Sports Arena.” The Coliseum and Sports Arena are “deeply in the red, having lost at least” $7.3M in the past few years (L.A. TIMES, 5/24).
GETTING LEGAL: Former UCLA men's basketball player REEVES NELSON has filed a lawsuit against Time Inc., the parent company of SI, and reporter GEORGE DOHRMANN claiming “defamation, false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Nelson, “painted as a chronic troublemaker who intentionally injured teammates” in the Dohrmann-penned SI report “Not the UCLA Way,” is seeking $10M “in compensatory damages” and another $10M “in punitive damages, as well as a retraction” (ESPNLA.com, 5/23)...An attorney for former Univ. of Tennessee Associate AD/Media Relations DEBBY JENNINGS said that AD DAVE HART gave Jennings “less than four hours to decide to retire or be fired for ‘insubordination’” in a May 15 meeting. Jennings' attorney, DAVID BURKHALTER, said that the former UT employee wants to try to “resolve the issue amicably” (AP, 5/23).
RANKINGS: BtoB magazine ranked the NFL third and the PGA Tour ninth on its list of Media Power 50. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament was also included on the list (BTOB, 5/14 issue)....Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods were ranked 136 and 466, respectively, on Fortune’s 500 list of America’s largest corporations (FORTUNE, 5/21 issue)....FAST COMPANY ranked Nike VP/Digital Sport STEFAN OLANDER seventh on its ’12 list of the 100 Most Creative People In Business. Also included on the list were PepsiCo Global CMO of Sports Nutrition and Gatorade North America President SARAH ROBB O’HAGAN (No. 23), EA Sports Exec VP ANDREW WILSON (No. 40) and TNT NBA analyst SHAQUILLE O’NEAL (No. 74) (FAST COMPANY, 6/’12 issue).
NAMES: The Rays Baseball Foundation and Helios Education Foundation are partnering to provide $1M over five years in college scholarships for students participating in Take Stock in Children in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Manatee and Pasco counties in Florida (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/23)....Capitals and Wizards Owner TED LEONSIS and AOL co-Founder STEVE CASE have made another major investment with their $450M Revolution Growth fund, acquiring a big stake in Virginia-based software maker Echo360 (WASHINGTON POST, 5/24)....Phillies 1B JIM THOME paid $4.6M for a seven-bedroom, 8,154-square-foot home in the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge. Thome is selling his six-bedroom home in Hinsdale, Ill., for $3.8M (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/23).
IN MEMORY: ING N.Y. Marathon Communications Dir STEVE MENDELSOHN, 67, passed away yesterday of pancreatic cancer at his home in Dumont, N.J. Mendelsohn served in his role for 36 years, and was “in charge of the roughly 400 ham radio operators who provide the communications system for the race” (NYTIMES.com, 5/23).
