Ahold shareholders might sue Deloitte
Ahold shareholders group consider suing Deloitte over accounting scandal
Deloitte could be sued by a shareholder activist group of Dutch food retailer
Ahold, according to reports.
Although auditor Deloitte was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Ahold
accounting scandal earlier this year by a US judge, chairman of shareholder
group Foundation for Investigating Corporate Information Pieter Lakeman told
Dow Jones Newswires that he is considering suing the global
organisation Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
Lakeman said he had handed over material to the public prosecutor that
implicated Deloitte in the scandal, as it had signed off on the company accounts
and annual report. ‘I haven’t heard from the public prosecutor so I could take
action myself,’ Lakeman told Dow Jones.
A District of Maryland Court judge threw out claims brought against the Big
Four firm by US Ahold shareholders this January. The claims centred around
Deloitte’s role as auditor of Ahold during which time the retailer revealed £2bn
of accounting irregularities concerning itself and US subsidiary US Foodservice
in 2002.