Dia Supermarket boss cooks the books to obtain bonus court hears in Spain

Dia boss  cooked books to get his bonus

SPAIN’S National High Court in Madrid is investigating Ricardo Curras, former CEO of ailing supermarket chain DIA.

Judge Alejandro Abascal suspects that in 2017 Curras padded the company’s books by €51.8 million in order to meet bonus targets.

The sting came to light at the end of 2018 when Curras had been ousted from his post after Dia failed to meet its targets and ended the year in technical bankruptcy.

Four Dia executives are also under investigation, together with KPMG auditor Carlos Peregrina Garcia, who was responsible for reviewing the accounts.

All have been called to testify before Alejandro Abascal.

A further investigation into Curras for what it described as a “very serious infringement” by Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has been delayed while the National High Court investigation is carried out.

The group is now in the hands of the Russian multimillionaire Mikhail Fridmman who took over in 2019, promising a €500 million cash injection.

Dia lost €420.7 million in the first six months of last year 2019, 1400 per cent more than 2018’s €29.5 million losses.