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| SFO charges three former Tesco executives over £300m black hole in accounts | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Three former Tesco executives have been charged with fraud and false accounting as part of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into a £300 million accounting scandal at the supermarket chain. | |
| Carl Rogberg, the former finance director of Tesco UK, Christopher Bush, the former managing director of Tesco UK, and John Scouler, the former commercial director for food have been charged with fraud by abuse of position relating to alleged activity that took place between February and September 2014, according to the SFO. | |
| All three have been ordered to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 22 September. | |
| The trio, who worked under former chief executive Philip Clarke, have been questioned over their role in the scandal, after it emerged that Tesco had overstated its profits by £263 million in 2014. | |
| The retailer's auditors found that the company had booked rebates from suppliers that it had not yet received. | |
| Tesco said in a statement: “We note the decision of the SFO to bring a prosecution against former colleagues in relation to historic issues and acknowledge the investigation into the company is ongoing. | Tesco said in a statement: “We note the decision of the SFO to bring a prosecution against former colleagues in relation to historic issues and acknowledge the investigation into the company is ongoing. |
| “Tesco continues to cooperate with the SFO's investigation. The last two years have seen an extensive programme of change at Tesco, but given this is an ongoing legal matter, we are unable to provide any further comment at this time.” | “Tesco continues to cooperate with the SFO's investigation. The last two years have seen an extensive programme of change at Tesco, but given this is an ongoing legal matter, we are unable to provide any further comment at this time.” |
| Clarke has also reportedly been question by the SFO as part of the probe. | |
| The former boss, who left the retailer in September 2014, oversaw a string of profit warnings and a slump in market share as Tesco came under pressure from discount rivals Aldi and Lidl. | |
| The SFO said that the investigation into Tesco “remains ongoing”. | |
| Mr Scouler is now commercial director at the telecoms company TalkTalk. In a statement the company said: | |
| “We are aware of the SFO's announcement, but as this is an ongoing investigation unrelated to TalkTalk we cannot comment further.” | |
| Last week, Tesco's former chief financial officer Laurie Mcilwee was cleared by the accountancy watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), over his role in the scandal. PwC, tesco's suditor at the time, remains under investigation by the FRC. | |
| Mr Mcilwee resigned as chief financial officer of Britain's biggest supermarket in April 2014, and the FRC said it had ended the investigation because there was “no realistic prospect” that a tribunal would make an adverse finding in relation to his conduct. | |
| Additional reporting by PA | |
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