Former U.S. Foodservice Officer Sentenced to Seven Years

By Daniel Hawn

Published on May 23, 2007

Although the U.S. Foodservice executive claimed to have never been motivated by greed, Kaiser played what U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa described as a central role in the fraud. He was convicted in November 2006 of creating fake rebates from vendors to boost company profits and personal bonuses.

During the sentencing hearing, Kaiser told Griesa he had learned that he made poor choices, adding that the past four years of his life have been a terrible experience.

In addition to the prison sentence, Kaiser will have two years of supervised probation and a $50,000 fine.

U.S. Foodservice Inc. is a subsidiary of Royal Ahold NV; Ahold announced in 2003 that it overreported its earnings by about $1 billion, mostly due to the fraud at U.S. Foodservice. In the aftermath, Ahold stock went down 60 percent, and the company has been forced to sell U.S. Foodservice to two private equity firms for $7.1 billion.

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