TOPS EXECS EXIT AMID ACCOUNTING WOES

David Ghitelman

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. -- Tops Markets here said last week seven executives have left the company in the wake of the accounting scandal Tops revealed late last month.

"Most were in senior management, but not all," a Tops spokeswoman told SN about the executives.

She added that their departure "doesn't mean that everyone is guilty" according to the company's internal investigation, but she did say that all the departures were related to Tops' accounting problems.

Citing Tops' policy, the spokeswoman declined to identify those leaving the company, but published reports named Thomas Heine, Tops' senior vice president of store operations, as one of the departing executives.

Late last month, the already scandal-mired Netherlands-based Ahold, Tops' corporate parent, said it had discovered $29 million in additional earnings overstatements, mostly at Tops and largely the result of the misreporting of vendor allowances.