Former Tesco finance director will not face fraud trial with others

Former Tesco finance director Carl Rogberg will not stand trial with two of his former colleagues in September, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said on Monday.

“Today His Honour Judge Sir John Royce severed Carl Rogberg from the upcoming trial indictment,” the SFO said in a statement to media, which are barred under English law from reporting the reason why Rogberg will not stand trial in September.

Two of Rogberg’s one-time colleagues at Tesco, UK managing director Christopher Bush and food commercial director John Scouler, neither of whom still work for the supermarket, face a retrial starting on Sept. 3 after the first trial was called off shortly before the jury was due to consider its verdict.

The SFO prosecution of the three men was launched after Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer, told the stock market in September 2014 that its profit forecast had been overstated by 250 million pounds ($328 million).

The disclosure wiped 2 billion pounds off Tesco’s market value and plunged the company into the worst crisis in its near 100-year history.