A former Nike marketing manager is being charged by federal prosecutors in a scheme to allegedly defraud his former employee of $1.5 million.
U.S. attorney general Billy J. Williams said Thursday that Errol Amorin Andam, a 49-year-old resident of Beaverton, Ore., has been charged by criminal information with wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements on a loan application as part of a plan to defraud his former employer.
From 2001 until his termination in 2018, Andam was employed at Nike Inc. corporate headquarters in Beaverton, according to officials. Most recently, he worked as a manager in the company’s North American Retail Brand Marketing division, where he managed the design, build-out and operation of Nike pop-up shops that were situated near sports competitions and other special events in the U.S.
Scheduled to be arraigned on March 5 before a U.S. Magistrate judge, Andam could face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, fines up to $4.5 million and five years of supervised release.
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. Ryan W. Bounds, the assistant U.S. attorney for the district of Oregon, is prosecuting the case.
Nike said in a statement issued Thursday, “Nike’s internal investigation team uncovered Mr. Andam’s activity in 2017 and after he was terminated from the company, we turned over the evidence to the U.S. attorney. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Andam, who had a job that allowed him access to some of the most exciting events in the world of sport, chose to abuse the trust that Nike put in him. We want to thank the U.S. attorney for its efforts on this case.”
According to a statement provided by Williams’ office, Andam recruited a childhood friend in the summer of 2016 to establish a company to build and design pop-ups as an independent contractor for Nike. Andam allegedly used his influence as a manager at Nike to ensure that his friend’s company was consistently awarded the contracts for the jobs. While Andam held no official role in his friend’s company, he allegedly assumed control of much of its financial operations, managing financial accounts and issuing invoices to Nike. He was said to have used the alias “Frank Little” to invoice Nike and manage the contract company with the mobile payment company Square Inc.
From September 2016 through December 2018, Andam allegedly embezzled $1.5 million in Nike proceeds for his own use. In July 2018, he was said to have submitted a fake financial statement from his LLC in support of a residential mortgage loan application. That document allegedly falsely reflected revenue checks drawn on a bank account owned by his friend’s business. Andam was said to have forged his friend’s signature on the check and withdrew much of that money without his friend’s knowledge.
Prosecutors claim that Andam renewed the lapsed registration of an Oregon-based limited liability corporation he owned in order to use the defunct entity as a shell company to divert proceeds from Nike and his friend’s company to accounts that were under his own control.
February 05, 2021 at 06:21AM
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Former Nike Manager Alleged to Have Defrauded His Former Employer - WWD
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