Content area
Full Text
Indianapolis executive Tom Shine was a pioneer in the sports-licensing business and he remains one of its most powerful players. But his future is on the line this week as he goes before a federal judge to be sentenced for his role in a sweeping accounting fraud.
Shine, senior vice president of sports and entertainment marketing worldwide for Reebok International Ltd., pleaded guilty in February to a criminal charge that he conspired five years ago to falsify records at a now-defunct Alabama-based retail chain, Just for Feet Inc.
At the time, Shine was president of Indianapolis-based Logo Athletic Inc., one of Just for Feet's suppliers. He admitted providing Just for Feet's outside auditor, Deloitte & Touche, with a letter falsely stating his company owed it $700,000.
Shine, 58, faces a maximum penalty, of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. But partly because Shine agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, legal observers say he'll receive far less than the maximum.
Three other executives who pleaded guilty to similar charges in the fraud and agreed to cooperate were sentenced by judges in Alabama this spring. In addition to probation, one received four months in prison while the others received terms of home detention.
"The sentencing is up to the court," said Shine's attorney, Brien O'Connor of Boston. "But we're very hopeful he'll get a probationary term."
Shine is one of at least 10 executives implicated so far in the financial shenanigans leading up to the late 1999 collapse of Just for Feet, then the nation's secondbiggest sneaker retailer.
Investigators...