U.K. retailer Sports Direct's independent shareholders will vote on whether to pay £11M ($14.7M) in back pay to the older brother of its billionaire founder, Mike Ashley, next month, the company confirmed, according to Nicholas Megaw of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The company will hold a general meeting on Dec. 13 to vote on whether to reimburse John Ashley after a report found he missed out on remuneration given to other senior execs due to "concerns at the time about public relations." Mike Ashley and the rest of the Sports Direct board will abstain from the vote, but said that they "are supportive of the resolution." The investigation, carried out by the company's legal adviser, RPC, and accountant, Smith & Williamson, began because of "concerns John Ashley had actually been paid too much during his time at Sports Direct" (FT, 11/24). In London, Mark Vandevelde reported John Ashley left his job as an IT director at Sports Direct in '15 before taking ownership of a company called Barlin Delivery. Barlin owned no trucks and employed no drivers, but received a share of Sports Direct's int'l website sales. The RPC probe found that John Ashley, who has since been rehired by Sports Direct, "could have received at most £167,000 from the Barlin arrangement" (FT, 11/24).
