Nine people who worked for suppliers to Ahold, the world's fourth largest supermarket group, have been charged by US authorities with collusion in its massive accounting fraud.

The people were yesterday accused by prosecutors of conspiring with executives at US Foodservice, Ahold's US distribution subsidiary, to create false accounting records that inflated earnings by more than $800m (€603m). The nine who face include Timothy Daly, a former vice-president at Michael Foods; John Nettle, former account manager at General Mills; and Michael Rogers, a former vice-president at Tyson Foods.