A Nike sales representative who cheated the sportswear giant out of at least three quarters of a million dollars by offering deep discounts to two side companies he quietly formed with a friend was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a month in federal prison.

David Reichert, dabbing his eyes with tissues, apologized in a quavering voice to Nike, where he had worked for more than 15 years, to his family and to the court. He said he was particularly sorry to his daughter, now 10.

"I'm embarrassed and ashamed to be in front of you today,'' Reichert told U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones. "I know I was wrong in my actions while I was working for Nike.''

He's agreed to pay Nike $769,280.16 in restitution within a week, cleaning out two of his retirement accounts.

The judge rejected pleas by Reichert's lawyer to sentence Reichert to probation and no prison time.

The judge characterized Reichert's "extraordinary discounts'' given to his own two companies to fill his "own pockets'' as "100 percent greed.''

Defense attorney John M. Lynch argued that Reichert didn't steal from Nike for significant material gain, noting Reichert didn't use the money to buy a boat, a Rolex watch or a fancy car, as the court might find in other white-collar crimes.

Instead, Reichert offered the excessive discounts to help support his two other companies that he and his childhood friend invested in together, Lynch said.

Reichert already has lost his job and his livelihood and will never gain a similar position in the future, Lynch said.

The attorney also argued that Reichert admitted to the wrongdoing during his first interview in July 2014 with the FBI and Nike's general counsel.

Prosecutor Ryan M. Bounds countered that Reichert's crimes lasted for an extended period and that only probation would be "way out of whack'' with sentences for similar offenses.

"The conduct was deliberate, deceptive, ongoing and self-enriching,'' Bounds said.

Reichert, 51, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud on April 25. As a Nike Inc. wholesale account executive, he worked from his home in St. Louis selling Nike-brand clothes and accessories emblazoned with team names and logos to retailers throughout the Midwest.

He was authorized to give discounts to his customers based on a variety of factors, but these discounts rarely totaled more than 20 percent of the listed wholesale price for even the largest, most important customers, according to Bounds.

In 2008, Reichert and a partner, Paul Russo, bought a sportswear retailer in the St. Louis area called Fan-a-Mania Inc., which had been a longtime Nike customer with a wholesale account managed by Reichert. About the same time, the two men incorporated a second retailer in Missouri called JJL Sports.

Without disclosing his ownership interests in the two retailers, Reichert managed their wholesale accounts for Nike. By 2012, he was giving the companies huge discounts on Nike merchandise -- averaging more than 57 percent off the wholesale prices, the prosecutor said. That was nearly three times the discounts he afforded to other Nike customers.

For example, on April 26, 2013, Reichert sold Fan-a-Mania a Nike T-shirt decorated with the Detroit Tigers logo for $5.60. Between January and May 2013, Reichert sold the same shirt to two other retailers for more than twice that amount, $11.90 to one and $13.30 to another, Bounds said.

When Nike and the FBI confronted Reichert, he acknowledged he he had failed to disclose his interest in the two Missouri companies, and had signed Russo's name on checks made out to Nike so no one would know he was selling to himself.

Reichert, according to his lawyer, argued that Nike was aware of his business interests and there was no policy that prohibited it sales representatives at the time from having side businesses.

The judge said Reichert deserved prison time for his "breach of trust'' and questioned why Reichert wasn't thinking of his daughter at the time he was bilking Nike.

"At the time you cheated against your employer, you were in a position of high responsibility,'' Jones said.

The judge ordered Reichert to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons in Missouri within 30 days.

- Maxine Bernstein

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