Ahold marketing exec gets seven years

Mark Kaiser, the former top marketing guy at US Foodservice, was sentenced to seven years in jail for the trade promotion accounting games that the Ahold subsidiary played a few years ago. He might consider himself lucky, since the prosecutors wanted twenty years.

The judge said he had to sentence Kaiser to prison because the criminal conduct was serious. "It was deliberate," Griesa said. "He had a leadership role and he got other people into trouble."

Ahold was forced to restate more than $800 million in earnings because of the fraud at U.S. Foodservice, and its stock lost 60 percent of its value. Two weeks ago, Ahold agreed to sell U.S. Foodservice to two private-equity firms for $7.1 billion dollars in a deal expected to close later this year.

Kaiser also was fined $50,000. He will remain free while the case is appealed. He was convicted in November after a one-month trial on securities fraud, conspiracy and false-filing charges.

In related news, Ahold recently sold US Foodservice.