Florida man bought, resold limited-edition sneakers stolen from Nike, court documents say

AIR_JORDAN_19089571.JPG

A Florida man is accused of buying pairs of limited-edition sneakers stolen from Nike headquarters and reselling them to businesses in Oregon, California, New York, New Jersey and Florida. It is not clear if the Air Jordans pictured were among them.

(Nike)

Jason Keating

Update: Florida man accused of reselling stolen rare Nike sneakers out of custody, plans to fight allegations

A Florida man spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying limited-edition sneakers stolen from Nike's headquarters just outside of Beaverton for at least a year and resold them to businesses in Oregon and across the country, federal court documents say.

Jason Michael Keating, 35, of Sanibel, Fla., allegedly paid a man more than $20,000 for a pending shipment of stolen Nike Look See shoes during a meeting in Portland on March 24, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in federal court. The man Keating allegedly paid was a source working with a Washington County Sheriff's detective and federal agent. The two overheard Keating mention future sneaker shipments and destroying boxes used to ship the shoes to him during the meeting, the affidavit said.

Nike's Look See sneakers are sample versions of shoes created for use in the design process. Only a small number of the sample shoes are ordered and some never go into mass production, which makes them rare and of high value for sneaker collectors.

Keating bought Look See sneakers and then resold them to small businesses in Oregon, California, Florida, New York and New Jersey, the affidavit said.

Keating was arrested in Portland on Wednesday and is accused of receipt of stolen property.

According to the affidavit, Nike's Director of Security Greg Fowler met with the Washington County detective on Feb. 14 and spoke about the theft of sneakers from company headquarters by employee Tung W. Ho, 35, of Portland, and former employee Kyle K. Yamaguchi, 33, of Portland.

Ho has been employed by Nike since 2005 and became a promo product manager in 2012, the affidavit said. Fowler told the detective that Yamaguchi held the position before Ho and helped Ho get the job when Yamaguchi left to pursue his own business venture, according to the affidavit.

Yamaguchi has appeared on several websites where he displays his collection of rare sneakers. A 2012 feature from sneaker magazine, Sole Collector, describes Yamaguchi as appearing at a summer footwear convention in New York "with a duffle bag full of rare and never-before-seen samples that he accumulated during the five years he worked at Nike."

Yamaguchi's LinkedIn profile page says he was a basketball product line manager for Nike between July 2006 and January 2012, with duties that included managing "the product line, creation process and execution of all Nike Basketball promotional footwear."

Yamaguchi founded LOOK/SEE, an eyewear company, in 2012.

Ho and Yamaguchi have not been arrested, but an investigation is ongoing, said Ryan Bounds of the U.S. Attorney's Office. He declined to comment further citing the ongoing investigation.

Greg Rossiter, a Nike spokesman, also declined to comment on the case.

"We are aware of the investigation and are cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities," he said in an email Thursday. It is not clear if Ho is still a Nike employee.

As a product manager, Ho is able to place orders for the sample shoes, the affidavit said. The detective saw evidence including surveillance video and photos of Ho between November 2013 and February 2014 leaving the Nike campus with Nike Look See sneakers and video of Ho arriving at a Portland self-storage facility, unloading several large boxes believed to have shoes inside and leaving empty-handed, the affidavit said.

Fowler said they also had evidence including emails written by Ho and Yamaguchi on Nike's email system to several people not employed by the company and records of several Look See orders made by Ho and Yamaguchi, according to court documents.

The Washington County detective called a Chase Bank investigator, who reported large cash deposits and fund transfers had been made from Keating's account to Yamaguchi's account between November 2012 and July 2013. The transfers and deposits were made in Oregon, California, Florida, New York and New Jersey and involved more than $221,000, the affidavit said.

When the bank investigator called Yamaguchi and questioned him about the transactions, he said Keating was paying him for a large shoe collection that Yamaguchi was selling on behalf of another person, the affidavit said. The bank investigator also reported that Yamaguchi explained that Keating would buy the shoes from him and then resell the footwear to small businesses in Oregon, California, Florida, New York and New Jersey, according to court documents.

Yamaguchi also wrote 13 checks to Ho between November 2012 and March 2013 for a total of $104,000, the affidavit said.

A search warrant was served to Ho's Portland home on March 14, where authorities seized nearly 1,950 pairs of Nike sneakers and cash, the affidavit said. Ho admitted to authorities that he had stolen several hundred pairs of Look See sneakers from Nike, according to the affidavit.

Ho told investigators that he made $15,000 selling the shoes on EBay and also sold them through Yamaguchi, court documents said. Ho explained that he would order the sample sneakers from a Nike factory in China and have them shipped to him. He would then negotiate a price with Yamaguchi for the sneakers.

After settling on a price, Ho would give the sneakers to Yamaguchi and then Yamaguchi would sell the shoes to a buyer. Ho said he did not know Keating, but did know that some of the sneakers went to a buyer in Florida and were sold to shops around the country, the affidavit said.

Authorities spoke to Yamaguchi on March 20, who admitted to being the middle man in the sale of the stolen sample sneakers and that he received 20 percent of the profit of the sale, the affidavit said. He said Keating was the largest buyer of the sneakers he received from Ho, according to the affidavit.

Yamaguchi said Keating pays for the shoes in person or via wire transfers and the payments typically ranged between $5,000 and $30,000 and sometimes could be more, the affidavit said. Keating traveled to Portland for larger payments, making cash withdrawals from several different bank branches to collect the amount he needed for the purchase, the affidavit said. After the payment was made, Yamaguchi said he would then ship the sneakers to Florida.

Katsu Tanaka, founder of sneaker collector retailer Compound Gallery in Old Town Portland, said Thursday he was stunned by the allegations against Yamaguchi, whom he described as a friend.

Tanaka said Yamaguchi had started his own line of sunglasses about a year ago. Tanaka said a few pairs of the LOOK/SEE sunglasses were for sale at Compound, located at 107 NW 5th Ave.

Told of the detailed accusations against Yamaguchi, Tanaka speculated that the products Yamaguchi would have come into contact with while working at Nike inspired the LOOK/SEE brand name.

Rare, collectible sneakers often sell for thousands of dollars on eBay and elsewhere. For example, Tanaka said Nike made 25 one-of-a-kind sneakers for the TED conference held over the weekend. He said 20 pairs were distributed by drawing to conference participants. A pair of those sneakers was being offered for $8,000 on Saturday night, Tanaka said.

Allan Brettman of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

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