Dive Brief:
- Financial regulators in the UK have charged the former treasurer and head of tax at grocery chain Morrisons with insider trading of shares in Ocado, an online grocery delivery company.
- Paul Gerard Coyle faces two charges of insider charges of "insider dealing," which is the British term for illegally benefiting from insider knowledge about a stock. At issue are alleged purchases of shares in Ocado prior to the announcement in May 2013 that it would partner with Morrisons.
- Coyle was arrested in connection with the case in December and left Morrisons in January.
Dive Insight:
What in the world is going on in the finance departments of European grocers? Rival Tesco was rocked by an accounting scandal just days ago. And over on the continent rival Royal Ahold spent millions in May to settle an accounting scandal of its own.
It's probably just all some sort of wild coincidence. All we can say for sure is that accounting scandals are the only one of the many problems faced by European grocers that can't be blamed on the rise of the German discount chains.