Britney Obstar, a former marketing manager at Adidas, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Garr M King to serve one year and one day in prison for orchestrating a fraud scheme that resulted in a $336,000 loss to Adidas. Judge King also ordered Obstar, 30, to pay full restitution to Adidas and to serve three years of supervised release upon release from prison.
Obstar pleaded guilty in November 2011 to one count of mail fraud. She admitted that beginning in 2009 and continuing through February 2010, while employed as a senior marketing manager at Adidas, she submitted invoices to Adidas requesting that Adidas pay Norcal Media Development (NCMD) for marketing services NCMD never performed for Adidas. NCMD was a California company formed by Obstar's brother-in-law and his girlfriend around the same time NCMD submitted its first invoice to Adidas.
NCMD transferred $140,000 of the money it received from Adidas to Still Not Sponsored, an Oregon company formed by Obstar’s husband. Obstar and her husband used that money to pay off car loans and credit card debt.
“Today's sentence demonstrates that no one is above the law,” said United States Attorney S Amanda Marshall. “The United States Attorney’s Office and its law enforcement partners will continue to target and vigorously prosecute white-collar crime, and those who engage in fraud should expect severe consequences.”
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacie Beckerman.
