A Dutch-listed company, Royal Ahold NV, was first established by Albert Heijn as a small grocery store in 1887 in Zandaam, the Netherlands. By 2005, it was one of the world's leading food providers with more than 240,000 employees, a customer base of more than 300,000 independent and chain businesses, and sales of more than 44 billion euros in 2005. In 2003, however, Royal Ahold was rocked by a financial scandal resulting in the firm restating its earnings by $1 billion for 3 years ending 2002 and paying $1 billion in December 2005 to settle a class-action lawsuit with shareholders. The former CFO who was fired in 2003, Michiel Meurs, was singled out by a Dutch enterprise court in 2006 as bearing most of the ...