Adidas investigating bribery claims in China

Sportswear giant Adidas is believed to have launched an investigation into allegations of bribery among its Chinese staff.

The inquiry is understood to have been initiated after the company received an anonymous whistleblower complaint, according to the Financial Times (FT), which initially reported the news.

In a letter seen by the media outlet, the writer, who claims to be an employee of Adidas China, alleged that several of the company’s employees in the region, including a manager handling marketing budgets, received kickbacks from external service providers commissioned by Adidas.

In addition to this, it was further alleged that another senior manager from a different division had received “millions in cash from suppliers and physical items such as real estate”

According to insiders for FT, none of the accused individuals had been named and while the author of the letter “did not provide hard evidence for their corruption allegations” they appeared to be “well-informed about highly sensitive and confidential internal issues”.

Adidas has since acknowledged the letter’s existence and the “potential compliance violations in China”. The sportswear brand confirmed to FT that it was “committed to complying with legal and internal regulations”, noting that it was “intensively investigating this matter together with external legal counsel”.