Following on the heels of the Worldcom and Enron Scandals, Ahold announced that its U.S. Foodservice unit overstated earnings by $880 million. The accounting irregularities caused a shake up at Ahold, the worlds third largest retailer, which named a new CEO last week and fired several top executives in their Foodservice division. They also announced that they will take a 700 million dollar write-down in a move to restore investor confidence, after an audit is completed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
See "Ahold Says Earnings Were Overstated by880 Million", Celeste Perri, Bloomberg News, May 7, 2003