Thursday, January 29, 2009

NRC reports: Ex-Ahold executives sentenced (and they got off lightly if you ask me)

The Amsterdam appeals court sentenced three former executives of Dutch supermarket group Ahold on Wednesday to suspended sentences and fines over an accountancy fraud revealed by the company in 2003. In the Netherlands' biggest ever corporate accountancy fraud, Ahold had revealed massive bookkeeping irregularities at its US Foodservice business and other foreign subsidiaries, overstating profits by almost 1 billion euros.

Former chief executive Cees van der Hoeven was sentenced to pay a fine of 30,000 euros, while former chief financial officer Michiel Meurs was given 240 hours of community labour, a fine of 100,000 euros and a six-month suspended sentence. Former management board member Jan Andreae was given a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of 50,000 euros. Former supervisory board member Roland Fahlin was acquitted, a confirmation of the lower court's ruling. The new sentences were lighter than those imposed by a lower court in May 2006.
[via NRC Handelsblad online]

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