Tesco Reiterates Commitment to Cooperate with SFO Probe After Execs Charged

12 Sep 2016 –-- Tesco has said it will "continue to cooperate" with the investigation by the Serious Fraud Investigation after three of its former executives were charged as part of an ongoing probe into accounting irregularities at the supermarket giant in 2014.

Carl Rogberg, Christopher Bush and John Scouler have been charged with fraud and false accounting, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said.

The three are due to appear in court on 22 September.

Rogberg was UK finance director, Bush managing director of Tesco UK and Scouler was UK food commercial director at Tesco.

The SFO began a criminal investigation in October 2014, just days after Tesco announced its profits had been overstated by £263m ($349m).

In a statement, Tesco said: "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."

Bush's solicitor said his client was not guilty and planned to fight the allegations.

Tesco's auditors found that the retailer's profit figure was the results of Tesco booking payments from suppliers before the company had been due the money.

The disclosure damaged Tesco's share price and prompted court action by US investors.

Tesco is also being probed by the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which police accountants.

The regulator has subsequently closed its probe into Laurie Mcllwee, the former chief financial officer at Tesco.

But the FRC is still investigating Tesco's accountants PwC as to how the firm audited its accounts in the lead up to the scandal.