Ahold says US Foodservice enquiry to continue
More executives may be implicated
May 10 2003
Ahold’s investigation into the $880m accounting crisis in its US Foodservice business not over, the supermarket giant has indicated.
The company took the unusual step of responding to suggestions that a line had been drawn following its announcement of the scale of the financial irregularities related to supplier payments.
Dutch-based Ahold issued a statement saying “the internal legal investigation into accounting irregularities at US Foodservice…is continuing in close co-operation with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ forensic accounting work.”
It added: “Statements that the investigation has concluded and that only two executives of US Foodservice were responsible for these accounting irregularities are inaccurate. The investigation continues to probe the possible involvement by U.S. Foodservice personnel other than the two individuals identified so far.”
The two executives mentioned, marketing head Mark Kaiser and purchasing head Timothy Lee, departed in the wake of the revelation of the problems. Robert Gillison, US Foodservice’s treasurer, told newspapers last Thursday that PricewaterhouseCoopers had determined that only two people were responsible for the irregularities. Ahold’s public announcement seems to indicate that it expects more departures from the business.
