Tesco in deferred prosecution talks with fraud office - Sky News
LONDON (Reuters) - British retailer Tesco has held talks with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over a deal to settle a criminal investigation into its accounting errors, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
The SFO opened a formal criminal investigation into errors at Tesco almost a year ago, after the firm admitted overstating its profits by 263 million pounds, a revelation that hammered the reputation of the country's biggest grocer.
Sky News said Tesco had been in discussions with the SFO about the possibility of signing a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) - a court-approved deal under which the company admits wrongdoing but avoids any immediate criminal sanctions.
"We have said before that we are not commenting on DPAs and the investigation into Tesco is still ongoing," a spokesman for the SFO told Reuters, referring to the Sky News report.
Tesco declined to comment.
The SFO gained powers to agree DPAs in February last year but has yet to agree such a deal.
Under a DPA, a prosecutor charges a company with a criminal offence but proceedings are automatically suspended and the company agrees to a number of conditions, such as paying a penalty and compensation. If the company does not honour the conditions, the prosecution may resume.
DPAs, which apply to organisations and not individuals, can be used in cases of fraud, bribery and other economic crimes.
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Sinead Cruise; Editing by Pravin Char)
