Lawyers representing US shareholders have filed at least 13 lawsuits against Dutch retailer Ahold following an accounting fiasco that led to the resignation of two of the group’s top executives.
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Former Ahold chief executive, Cees van der Hoeven, and former chief financial officer, Michiel Meurs have both been named as defendants in the lawsuits. Also named as defendants in some of the civil actions brought in federal courts are Ahold’s US Foodservice unit and its chief executive James Miller, Ahold chairman Henny de Ruiter and Ahold auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, reported Reuters.
Ahold announced on 24 February that its CEO and CFO were to resign amid investigations into the company’s US Foodservice unit for accounting irregularities which led to earnings being overstated by at least US$500m.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Van der Hoeven and Meurs were in conflict with Ahold over severance packages. Ahold confirmed the issue had gone to arbitration, reported the Financial Times.

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