Ten Years Is A Long Time

According to a Reuters article, the CFO of Royal Ahold has told a Dutch newspaper that the U.S. securities class actions brought against the company in the aftermath of its recent accounting scandal could “‘last long, even 10 years is possible.'” Complicating the situation, Royal Ahold’s D&O insurance carrier has served the company with a court summons in an attempt “to terminate the Directors, Officers and Corporate Liability policy of $100 million for Ahold’s U.S. Foodservice subsidiary where much of the profit overstatements took place in 2002.” (The 10b-5 Daily has posted about this case before, most recently concerning the court’s discovery decision issued last March.)