Ahold's shares were battered when news of the scandal emerged

US finance watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it had declined to fine the firm as it had taken extensive remedial action.

Under the deal ex-chief Cess van der Hoeven was barred from serving as an officer or executive at a public firm.

Former chief financial officer Miciel Meurs was also barred.

Roland Fahlin, a former member of Ahold's audit committee, also settled with the SEC on reporting and book keeping charges, the commission said.

'Deplorable'

"This case is yet another deplorable example of a massive, multifaceted fraud at a major corporation," said Thomas Newkirk, an associate enforcement director at the SEC.

Ahold and the three former executives settled without admitting or denying the allegations.

Ahold cooperated fully with the SEC in its investigation and has undertaken significant remedial actions in connection with the issues that were investigated Ahold

The company had "worked very hard over the past two years to improve its systems and controls, and implement other remedial measures to prevent any recurrence of these unfortunate events", Peter Wakkie, Ahold's chief corporate governance counsel, said in a statement.

The settlements followed an SEC investigation into claims that the Dutch company overstated its income by approximately $829m over three years starting in the financial year for 2000.

The SEC said Ahold had fraudulently inflated promotional allowances at its US subsidiary Foodservice, improperly consolidated joint ventures and also committed other accounting errors and irregularities.

Foodservice is the number two supplier to casinos and hotels in America.

Errors accepted

"Ahold cooperated fully with the SEC in its investigation and has undertaken significant remedial actions in connection with the issues that were investigated," the company said.

A lawyer for Ahold added that the group had accepted that its accounts were incorrect under US regulations. However, he added that they were in line with Dutch rules.

The SEC said it would continue with its fraud case against former executive president Jan Andreae.

Ahold is still facing a class action suit, an investigation by the US Justice Department and a suit by Dutch shareholder group VEB.

Meanwhile, the company is still going through the courts in the Netherlands following the scandal, dubbed by some the European equivalent to Enron.

Dutch charges

As the case opened in Amsterdam on Wednesday, former chairman and chief executive Mr van der Hoeven asked for the charges against him to be dropped.

He and three other former company managers are facing fraud charges related to Ahold's financial consolidation of a Scandinavian joint venture and the allegedly improper consolidation of other companies involved in the irregular bookkeeping.

Although the irregularities had a minimal impact on its accounts, they did make sales look larger than they really were and made the company appear more valuable than it was.

Prosecutors say Mr van der Hoeven and the three others committed fraud because they knew that the company did not have control over its subsidiaries, but failed to inform accountants or shareholders of the fact.

Mr van der Hoeven resigned from the company in 2003 after the revelations emerged and the company has since slowly returned to financial stability.