Ahold reaches deal on 11-year-old US Foodservice fraud

Supermarket group Ahold has reached a $297m settlement with clients of its former US subsidiary US Foodservice, ending a long legal chapter.

US Foodservice delivered food to hospitals and schools but it emerged at the time of the Ahold book-keeping scandal of 2003 that they were being charged too much.

The clients started a collective law suit in an effort to reclaim the money, claiming US Foodservice had used phony invoices and sham companies to inflate their bills.

In 2005, Ahold agreed a $1.1bn deal with investors who lost out because of the fraud. Ahold bought US Foodservice in 2000 and sold it again in 2007 but remained liable for the fraud. The deal still has to be approved by the US authorities.

More on this

Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nl.

We could not provide the Dutch News service, and keep it free of charge, without the generous support of our readers. Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter, and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day.

Make a donation