A former Nike music-licensing staffer and an outside consultant are facing racketeering and theft charges over an alleged kickback scheme that prosecutors say drained more than USD $1 million from the company.
John Griffith and his friend Brad Mosher were each indicted on 24 felony counts by a Washington County grand jury in May, according to court documents.
That’s according to FOX 12 Oregon, which first reported the allegations against Griffith and Mosher after reviewing court documents in the prosecution.
Griffith’s LinkedIn profile lists his title as Global Brand Marketing, Music Supervision, Strategy and Licensing, a role that FOX 12 reported gave him authority over the company’s music-vendor contracts.
The charges against both men include racketeering, aggravated theft by deception, and money laundering, and both were arrested in early June.
According to court documents obtained by FOX 12, Mosher owned a music-licensing consultancy called Good Measure LLC, whose only client was Nike.
Prosecutors allege that Griffith set inflated prices for Good Measure to bill Nike, and that Mosher then routed roughly half of those payments back to Griffith through a shell company called Quiver and Bow LLC.
“Between June 20, 2020, and December 28, 2022, Bradley Mosher and John Griffith conspired to operate a criminal enterprise to steal over $1,000,000 from Nike through an orchestrated kickback scheme,” Washington County Deputy District Attorney Carlos Catibayan wrote in a court filing.
The alleged scheme ran for more than two and a half years, with prosecutors identifying at least 11 fraudulent transactions, each involving $50,000 or more, FOX 12 reported.
Each man faces two counts of racketeering, a class A felony under Oregon law, alongside 11 counts of aggravated theft in the first degree by deception and 11 counts of laundering a monetary instrument.
Court documents identify Nike and its Beaverton headquarters as the victim, and the company is seeking full restitution of the money prosecutors say was stolen.
Griffith is out on bail set at $100,000, while Mosher‘s bail was set at $5,000, according to FOX 12.
Mosher appeared in Washington County Circuit Court on July 24 for his initial appearance.
Mosher‘s attorney, Chris Heywood, told FOX 12 that his client had cooperated with investigators.
“This is a complex and far-reaching case,” Heywood said. “From the outset, Brad Mosher offered his full cooperation to both Nike and law enforcement.”
“To this point, that cooperation has occurred in private. We now look forward to defending him publicly,” Heywood added.
Griffith‘s attorney, Kristen Winemiller, sent a statement to FOX 12.
“Mr. Griffith’s work for Nike has been highly successful. He is proud of what he has accomplished for the brand, both as an employee and a vendor, over their long association,” Winemiller said.
“There are few who could have done that work as efficiently or effectively as he has,” Winemiller added.
A Nike spokesperson disputed the seniority of Griffith’s role.
“JT Griffith is no longer employed by Nike,” the spokesperson told FOX 12. “He left the company in 2022 after serving in a business affairs role that included music licensing responsibilities.”
“He was not an executive at the company,” the Nike spokesperson added.
The case adds to a run of criminal prosecutions connected to the US music business.
In March, North Carolina musician Michael Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in what US prosecutors described as the first criminal case of its kind, after collecting more than $8 million in royalties using AI-generated songs and bot-driven streams.
No trial date has been set, and the Washington County District Attorney’s office has asked the court to try Griffith and Mosher together, according to FOX 12.Music Business Worldwide
