Ahold U.S. executives charged with F.

Prosecutors charged three former executives of Royal Ahold NV's U.S. unit with inflating earnings by more than $800 million at the world's third-largest retailer. Michael Resnick, 42, the former chief financial officer of the unit; Mark Kaiser, 47, its ex-marketing manager; and William Carter, 43, a former vice president, were charged with a F. conspiracy, Interim U.S. Attorney David Kelley said at a press conference in Manhattan. Resnick and Kaiser, members of the unit's executive committee, will appear in federal court tomorrow to enter a plea to charges including securities F. , conspiracy to commit securities F. and filing false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The three-count indictment alleges that U.S. Foodservice overstated earnings by recording as income promotional allowances that hadn't yet been earned. By doing so, Kaiser and Resnick each earned bonuses doubling their salary, Kelley said. Their alleged F. occurred between 2000 and February 2003, Kelley said. Prosecutors said Kaiser and Resnick were able to dupe auditors by inducing vendors to issue letters attesting to the legitimacy of some promotional allowances. They then issued secret side letters excusing the original letters. "They manipulated income, they accelerated income, and in some instances they just made it up,'' said Linda Thomsen, deputy enforcement director of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Article