The Tesco accounting scandal sent shock waves through the British financial community when it was revealed in October 2014. Those shock waves made it to Britain’s former colonies here in America as even The Man From FCPA sat up and took notice. The venerable British grocery chain admitted it had overstated earnings for the first half of 2014 by around £260m by fraudulently accounting certain revenues received back from suppliers. According to an article in the International Business Times, “The impact of the probe, and subsequent internal investigations and accounting writedowns, led to Tesco reporting its biggest loss on record of £6.4bn for the year to February 2015.”
Now the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced the first three indictments from the scandal. Earlier this month the SFO said in a Press Release it was charging three individuals, Carl Rogberg, Christopher Bush, and John Scouler, each with one count of fraud which allegedly occurred between February 2014 and September 2014.The three men are scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Sept. 22, 2016. Each is facing up to ten years in prison if convicted.
