A former Nike music-licensing employee, John Griffith, and outside consultant Brad Mosher have been charged in Oregon over an alleged kickback scheme prosecutors say siphoned more than $1 million from the sportswear giant. A Washington County grand jury indicted both men on 24 felony counts in May, and they were arrested in early June, in a case that highlights how vendor arrangements within a major brand's marketing operations can be exploited for personal gain.

Prosecutors allege Griffith, who held authority over Nike's music-vendor contracts, inflated prices charged by Mosher's consultancy Good Measure LLC, whose sole client was Nike, with roughly half the resulting payments funnelled back to Griffith via a shell company called Quiver and Bow LLC. The alleged scheme ran from June 2020 to December 2022 and involved at least 11 fraudulent transactions of $50,000 or more each. Both men face two counts of racketeering, 11 counts of aggravated theft by deception and 11 counts of money laundering; Griffith's bail was set at $100,000 and Mosher's at $5,000. Both men's lawyers have pushed back on the characterisation of events, while Nike said Griffith left the company in 2022 and was not an executive; no trial date has yet been set.