As part of a criminal investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has asked for documents detailing the financial relationship between USA Track & Field (USATF), the governing body for the sport of running in the United States, and Nike, its largest sponsor.

Runner’s World has learned that a grand jury subpoena requested documents pertaining to USATF and its board of directors and three businesses: Nike; Matchbook Creative, a marketing firm in Indianapolis that counts USATF as one of its clients; and Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures LLC, a media and commercial rights advisory firm in New York.

The subpoena also sought information about two escrow agreements from 2018, a Siegel fund and a Washington fund. Max Siegel is the CEO of USATF, and Renee Washington is the COO of USATF.

In addition, Runner’s World learned that FBI agents recently interviewed a high-ranking official within USATF, who has knowledge of the organization’s finances, outside his home.

Runner’s World sent several questions about the investigation to USATF, and sought interviews with Siegel, Washington, and the official who was interviewed by the FBI. The organization responded with a statement:

“USATF is not able to confirm the existence of any investigation. However, the Organization stands ready to fully and transparently cooperate with any government inquiry. We are committed to our mission to drive competitive excellence and popular engagement in the sport.”

Nike, Matchbook Creative, and Bevilacqua and Helfant did not respond to emails from Runner’s World seeking comment.

The Department of Justice forwarded Runner’s World’s request for more information to the FBI, which would not confirm the targets of the investigation and declined comment.

The Nike deal

Nike has been a longtime sponsor of USATF. In April 2014, USATF and Nike announced a new deal that would start in 2017 and extend through 2040. The agreement was thought to be worth about $475 million and pay USATF about $19 million per year, up from the $10 million annually Nike was paying to support the organization previously.

“This new deal is a game-changer for the sport and what USATF will be able to offer all of our constituents,” Siegel said in a press release issued at the time. “In working together with Nike, we placed an emphasis on growth as well as scope, so we can broaden the level and breadth of support for all USATF programs. Nike’s support for USA Track & Field and the sport as a whole is unmatched, and we look forward to this new era of collaboration.”

The deal nearly doubled the marketing revenues for USATF, from about $12 million in 2014 to nearly $22 million in 2019, according to tax filings nonprofits are required to make public, known as Form 990s. The 2020 Form 990 has not yet been made public.

But some industry insiders, mainly from competing footwear and sportswear companies, decried the deal for giving Nike too much power in running in the U.S. and for its lengthy term in a constantly evolving sports marketing landscape. The deal, they said, might not look as generous in 2040 as it did in 2014.

The deal was negotiated by two former Nike employees, Chris Bevilacqua and Adam Helfant, whose firm, Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures LLC, is named in the subpoena. USATF’s 2014 Form 990 shows the firm earned $504,594 that year, and that $23.75 million was set aside for “deferred sponsorship commission expenses.” A 2016 Washington Post investigation reported that those commission expenses would be paid out to Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures through 2039, for its part in negotiating the deal.

Every year, USATF’s tax filings show Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures is among the nonprofit’s highest paid independent contractors. In 2018 and 2019, the most recent years for which information is available, the firm earned $937,500 each year from USATF.

The USATF board of directors chairman at the time, Steve Miller, told the Post during its investigation that the commission was “reasonable.” One Oregon-based sports marketing expert, who did not wish to be named, also told Runner’s World that 5 percent commissions are standard in the industry.

The same Washington Post article addressed Matchbook Creative, which is also named in the subpoena and counts USATF among its clients, and detailed its ties to Siegel: At one point the company called itself a Max Siegel company, and employees of Matchbook had email addresses ending in @maxsiegelinc, according to the Post. Matchbook’s CEO told the Post that the company “never meant to give the impression that Matchbook was owned by Max.” Siegel’s name does not show up on Matchbook Creative’s business filings with the Indiana Secretary of State.

Three USATF staff members told Runner’s World that after the Post report, they were required to sign nondisclosure agreements as a condition of their continued employment.

Questions arise from financial filings

iaaf world indoor championships day 1
Ian Walton//Getty Images
Max Siegel, the CEO of USATF.

In addition to the commissions paid to Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures, Nike paid USATF a “one-time commitment bonus” of $25 million. This bonus was paid out over three years: $15 million in 2014, and $5 million apiece in 2015 and 2016.

The one-time commitment bonus is described in USATF’s 2018 financial statement, which was made public in April 2020.

Siegel collected bonuses of $500,000 apiece in 2014 and 2015, and $1 million in 2016.

In 2013, before the extension of the Nike deal, he received no bonus. His base pay in 2013 was $640,759, and he received nontaxable benefits of $36,418.

USATF also posted its 2018 Form 990 in April 2020, and it showed Siegel that year earned base pay of $611,000, a bonus of $500,000, and $3 million in “retirement and deferred compensation.”

A note in USATF’s financial statement read, “In 2018, USATF entered into compensation agreements with key members of management for their employment through December 31, 2021.” The board designated $3 million to be escrowed to cover future minimum payments: $500,000 in each of 2019, 2020, and 2021, and $1.5 million in 2022.

In response to questions from Runner’s World in 2020 about Siegel’s 2018 compensation package, USATF spokesperson Susan Hazzard wrote in an email at the time: “The USATF Board of Directors and its Compensation Committee approved the compensation package for Mr. Siegel in 2014.”

Even before the disclosure of USATF’s 2018 tax forms, Siegel’s compensation as the head of a nonprofit organization has been viewed by many in the sport as excessive.

In 2019, the most recent year for which tax filings are available, Siegel’s reportable compensation was $1.197 million, while USATF reported revenues of $33.7 million. He earns more than the CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Sarah Hirshland, who made $785,716 in 2019. That organization had revenues of $193.6 million.

Siegel outearned the CEOs of two other primary sports in the summer Olympics: gymnastics and swimming. In 2019, the CEO of USA Gymnastics made $376,724 on revenues of $26.4 million. The same year, the CEO of USA Swimming made $749,201 on revenues of $39 million, which are $5 million higher than USATF’s.

Furthermore, all but the top athletes in track & field have difficulty making a living at their sport. Although Olympic medalists can parlay their winnings into lucrative sponsorship deals, those who are one step removed from the Olympic team often have trouble paying for rent, travel to meets, and coaching, which makes Siegel’s generous compensation more glaring.

Distance runners Ben True and Noah Droddy, for instance, spent most of 2021 unsponsored; top 800-meter runner Chanelle Price retired in the fall after years of scraping by with the assistance of her club. Steeplechaser Andy Bayer made a world championships team but lost his Nike sponsorship in 2020 and gave up running for a career in software engineering.

Several members of USATF’s board of directors were surprised when they learned of Siegel’s 2018 compensation agreement, even though the board is charged with overseeing the CEO, and its Form 990 indicated that the board was informed about his compensation. The board held an extra session to “get the board on the same page regarding the filing of the 990,” according to minutes from the meeting.

In the weeks following the posting of the 2018 Form 990, two directors, Dr. Jeff Porter and Tricia Myers, quit the board, as did USATF’s accounting firm.

According to USATF’s 2019 Form 990, Siegel worked an average of 60 hours per week for USATF, up from the 40 hours per week reported in 2018.

Approaching 10 years

usatf track and field trials
Andy Lyons//Getty Images
A temperature of 107 degrees is displayed as competition was suspended until the evening during day 10 of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials.

Siegel took over as CEO in May 2012, after serving on the board of directors from 2009. His decade at the helm has been marked by highs and lows.

During his tenure, the governing body expanded its tier system, giving additional financial support and access to USOPC health insurance, to athletes who have medaled at major championships and made Olympic and world championships teams.

In April 2015, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now World Athletics) awarded the 2021 world championships to Eugene, Oregon. The meet was pushed to 2022 because of the pandemic, and it’s the first time it will take place in the U.S.

But the organization is often a lightning rod for controversy, with three high profile incidents in 2021 alone, and others throughout Siegel’s tenure.

At the Olympic Track & Field Trials, held in June 2021, Shelby Houlihan, a Nike athlete, was initially on the start lists for the women’s 1500 meters, even though she had announced earlier the same week that she had failed a drug test and had been suspended for four years. After an outcry from elite runners and global anti-doping authorities, USATF removed her from the start lists. She did not compete.

Later in the meet, the Trials schedule was rearranged to avoid making athletes compete in excessive heat, as temperatures in Eugene reached 110 degrees. The heptathlon, however, was not rescheduled until an athlete collapsed on the track and was forced to withdraw from the competition.

Recently, USATF announced it would select the marathoners for the 2022 world championships based on the results of four races: the Olympic marathon and the fall marathons in Chicago, Boston, and New York. However, that announcement was made after three of the four qualifying races had already occurred.

A previous investigation

In 2018, The New York Times reported that prosecutors for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York were investigating international sports corruption—a probe that included FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, among other bodies.

Investigators looked at how the 2021 world championships were awarded to Eugene, because when IAAF awarded the meet, it bypassed the usual bid process. Eugene bid to host the 2019 world championships, but that meet was awarded to Doha, Qatar.

As part of that investigation, attorneys interviewed Vin Lananna, then the president of USATF’s board of directors and the head of TrackTown USA.

Lananna told the Oregonian in 2019 he thought he was a cooperating witness, and he said he was instructed not to discuss the interview. No charges were ever filed against him.

The board of directors put Lananna on leave from his volunteer job as president of USATF’s board in February 2018. He was not reinstated until he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in October 2019.

On December 5, 2019, the arbitrator in the case ruled that Lananna should be reinstated immediately. Lananna remains the president of USATF.

USATF did not respond to Runner’s World’s question about whether Siegel and Washington would be put on leave until the current investigation is concluded.

The government’s investigation comes at a sensitive time for USATF and Nike. The world championships are set to begin in eight months at Hayward Field. The new track on the University of Oregon campus was largely funded by Nike—in preparation for hosting the championships for the first time on U.S. soil.

Lettermark
Sarah Lorge Butler

Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!