Kraft Heinz forced to review accounts

Kraft Heinz will have to review its accounts of the past few years, in the wake of a number of reports that some employees may have been tinkering with the accounting.

SEC investigation

The accounts deal with the financial years 2016 and 2017, as well as the first three quarters of 2018. An internal investigation has shown that the errors are linked with the purchasing department and revolve around the exact time when certain costs were booked.

In February, it had already become clear that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the American stock market watchdog, had launched an investigation into the company’s accounting. In March, Kraft Heinz received an additional subpoena from the SEC concerning the processing of goodwill and write-offs in the accounting. The SEC intends to have a look at the purchase documents as well.

The food concern also wrote off 15.4 billion dollars (14 billion euros) in goodwill from Kraft and Oscar Meyer. Due to the accounting errors, 13 million dollars (12 million euros) would be added to that.

The ongoing troubles at Kraft Heinz have caused a delay in the publication of the financial report for the first quarter of 2019.