Adidas says it has placed one of its employees on administrative leave and engaged outside counsel to conduct a thorough investigation into a case of bribery in which he has allegedly been involved. Jim Gatto, who is Adidas' director of global sports marketing for basketball, was mentioned among ten people who will be charged by U.S. federal authorities for using bribes of as much as $150,000 to steer top high school prospects to NCAA basketball programs and to get them to sign up with Adidas after college. Gatto is said to have been collaborating in the scheme with Merl Code, another Adidas employee who used to work for Nike. Meanwhile, the University of Louisville has placed a basketball coach and an athletic director named in the indictment on administrative leave, pending the outcome of forthcoming hearings in the case, and the FBI has raided a basketball sports agency, ASM Sports, confiscating documents and computers. Adidas recently signed a $160 million, ten-year sponsorship contract with the University of Louisville. The charges follow an investigation which has been conducted by the FBI since 2015 into corruption in college basketball at the request of the U.S. Attorney's office.

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