One of the top managers at Dutch retail giant Ahold has resigned, following a $880m accounting scandal at the company's US subsidiary.

The announcement that the boss and founder of US Foodservice, Jim Miller, was stepping down came as angry Ahold shareholders attended the company's annual general meeting near The Hague.

Last week the firm said an internal investigation suggested that two US Foodservice managers - marketing chief Mark Kaiser and purchasing head Timothy Lee - had colluded in the scandal.

A lawyer for Mr Kaiser described the report's finding as being part of a "smear campaign".

The Dutch shopper-investors have lost a great deal of money and want answers BBC business correspondent Mark Gregory on Ahold's special place in Dutch economic life

Mr Miller was not implicated, but had been criticised for clinging on to his job while Ahold's top bosses, chief executive Cees van der Hoeven and chief financial officer Michiel Meurs had resigned straight away.

The shareholder meeting was the first opportunity for investors to confront management about the corporate disaster that emerged at the world's third-largest grocery retailer in February.

Taking stock

Ahold's acting chief executive Henny de Ruiter offered shareholders his "sincere apologies" for the scandal at the US subsidiary.

"The events will have caused feelings of upset and anger and disarray and I fully understand those feelings," he said.

Ahold's share price has fallen from a peak of about 38 euros two years ago to just over 5 euros now. When news of the accounting problems broke, the value of shares plummeted by more than two-thirds within a couple of days.

Since then the firm has tried to ascertain what exactly went wrong at its US subsidiary, and the size of the budget black hole.

Delays

Debt-laden Ahold is now paying the price for the problems at its US acquisition.

The company that once tried to rival the world's top retailers Wal-Mart and Carrefour has been forced to sell off its operations in Latin America.

The new chief financial officer, Dudley Eustace, warned that Ahold might have to sell more of its assets to stay liquid and meet the requirements of its bank loans.

The company's results for the first three months of the year are now expected to be announced by the end of this week.

However, investors will have to wait a bit longer for the full report for the past financial year, which will take account of the irregularities.

The new management won shareholder approval to delay publication of the report until November this year, although it hopes to deliver it some time this summer.