Reebok India ex-chief sues Adidas for ‘wrongful’ sacking

Subhinder Singh Prem, the former managing director of the Indian operations of Adidas and Reebok India, today sued his former employer for Rs15 crore in damages, alleging he was wrongfully sacked.

Adidas AG announced from its Frankfurt headquarters on Monday that Prem and his colleague, chief operating officer Vishnu Bhagat, had left the company, and had been replaced by Claus Heckerott as managing director and Frederic Serrant as sales director.

Adidas did not immediately disclose the reason for the management change, but it has since emerged that the two are suspected of engineering irregularities in the company's Indian operations, resulting in Adidas having to write off Rs870 crore from its books.

Prem confirmed today that he was fired and had not resigned on his own.

He said Adidas was fully in the loop on how the company was run. The company was not a one-man show and all its financials and accounts were approved by up to five layers of officials.

Bhagat, the finance chief of Indian operations for the past one year, was specially appointed by the Adidas Group and all business and expansion plans were vetted by Adidas' headquarters, Prem told select newspersons in New Delhi.