Britain's biggest retailer Tesco is in advanced talks with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over a plea deal that would involve it paying a large fine over its 2014 profit overstatement, Sky news said on Saturday. Sky said it had learned that lawyers acting for Tesco are closing in on a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) following months of discussions with the SFO. It cited unnamed sources as saying that a deal could be struck within weeks, although there was no certainty a final agreement would be reached.
The amount of any fine would be well over 100 million pounds ($125 million) it added. No comment from Tesco was immediately available. Tesco issued a statement to the Stock Exchange in September 2014 saying that during its final preparations for an interim results announcement it had identified a 250 million pound overstatement of first-half profit, mainly because it booked commercial deals with suppliers too early.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.