British supermarket chain Tesco settled its case surrounding its accounting scandal dating back to 2014, when it immensely overstated its profit forecast. It will now pay a 129 million pound (149 million euro) fine.
250 million euro
The company will also reimburse investors for 85 million pounds (98 million euro), which means the accounting scandal will cost Tesco nearly 250 million euro.
Back in 2014, it knowingly overestimated its first-half profit forecast by 250 million pounds (290 million euro), but when the truth came out, its share sank and a lot of board members had to show their true colours.
Late last year, several former directors were officially indicted for fraud, but Tesco now released a press release saying its current board knew nothing and that the British Financial Conduct Authority confirms it could not have known the numbers were false.
“Over the last two and a half years, we have fully cooperated with this investigation into historic accounting practices, while at the same time fundamentally transforming our business. We sincerely regret the issues which occurred in 2014 and we are committed to doing everything we can to continue to restore trust in our business and brand”, Tesco CEO, Dave Lewis, said.
