After fending off a last-ditch U.S. Supreme Court appeal last month, plaintiffs in a rare class action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act have inked a $297 million settlement with U.S. Foods Inc. and its former parent, the Dutch retail conglomerate Royal Ahold.
The deal, reached Tuesday night and announced Wednesday, resolves allegations that USF executives hatched a scheme to overbill about 75,000 institutional customers nationwide between 1998 and 2005. The plaintiffs claim that USF used dummy companies and fake invoices to inflate food costs that it used to set prices under customer contracts.
