Royal Ahold NV

In The U.S. District Court in Maryland, Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch grocery giant, has agreed to settle a securities fraud class action lawsuit and pay $1.1 billion to shareholders for overstating profit. The Dutch Company's U.S. Foodservice Inc. unit based in Columbia was accused of an accounting scandal when former suppliers conspired to help executives at the company meet earnings targets from 2000 to 2003 by inflating promotional allowances to Ahold by $800 million. After the scandal become public in February 2003, subsequent disclosures revealed that Ahold's publicly reported earnings overall had been overstated by more than $1 billion and that prior revenue had been overstated by $24 billion. (Jun-19-06) [REUTERS]