Shamim quits as Reebok India brand director

Sajid Shamim, the brand director of Reebok at Adidas

Group India, has submitted his resignation. His resignation follows after Adidas headquarter in Germany accused Reebok India of alleged Rs 870 crores fraud, which is currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) of the Union ministry of corporate affairs.

Sajid Shamim had joined Reebok India in 2000 and held various key positions in product management and marketing and sales. He has been a key contributor in establishing the Reebok brand in India. His departure from the company comes close on the heels of other two major exits in March including Adidas India’s managing director, Subhinder Singh Prem, and the chief operating officer, Vishnu Bhagat.

The crisis at Adidas’s India operations began when the German sports major called on the Indian authorities to launch a criminal probe into the commercial irregularities at Reebok India. “Based on the commercial irregularities we have uncovered at Reebok India, we have now filed a criminal complaint with the Indian law enforcement authorities in order to start the formal investigation,” the Adidas group had said in a statement.

Prem in turn issued a legal notice to the company asking for Rs 15 crore in damages. The lawyers have also demanded from Adidas, contractual dues of Rs 12.7 crore, which includes Prem’s performance bonus for 2011 and his severance package.

Adidas had acquired Reebok globally in a $3.8 billion (over Rs 2,000 crores) acquisition in 2005. But the merger between the two in India happened only in 2011.