Light sentences in Dutch fraud

AMSTERDAM - A Dutch court sentenced the former chief executive and chief financial officer of supermarket group Ahold to suspended jail terms yesterday over one of Europe's largest financial scandals.

The Ahold accounting scandal in 2003 pushed one of the world's largest retailers to the brink of collapse.

The executives were found guilty of deceiving accountants to boost group sales by improperly consolidating the results of several retail subsidiaries and adding sales of joint ventures in Scandinavia and South America to Ahold's accounts.

The court handed former chief executive Cees van der Hoeven and former chief financial officer Michiel Meurs nine-month suspended sentences and fined each €225,000 ($465,000).

Prosecutors had demanded 20-month sentences, part of them suspended, for the pair.

In the United States, accounting fraud carries much tougher sentences. Former Enron executives face possible prison terms of up to 30 years and former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years, but is free pending an appeal.

Judge Frans Bauduin said that unlike cases such as Enron, there had been no question of personal enrichment at Ahold.

Jan Andreae, the former Ahold board member responsible for Europe, was given a suspended sentence of four months and fined €120,000. Roland Fahlin, once a supervisory board member and accountancy committee chairman, was acquitted.

Prosecutors had called for sentences of 12 months for Andreae and Fahlin, both partially suspended.

Prosecutors said they were considering appealing against the sentences, which were also criticised by a prominent shareholder activist.

"It's incredibly low," said Peter Paul de Vries, director of the VEB shareholders lobby. "Especially if you consider the amount of points the court considered proven, then it's incomprehensible there were no non-suspended sentences."

Ahold revealed in February 2003 that profits had been overstated by almost €1 billion, knocking its shares by 75 per cent.

- REUTERS