Letters to MoneyWeek: Most Tesco investors are getting a raw deal

A selection of letters sent in to the MoneyWeek office, and their replies.

Thank you for your editor's letter in the 1 September issue (MoneyWeek 860) relating to PPI mis-selling. It reminded me of the similar pressures put on young financial advisers in the 1980s to sell endowment rather than repayment mortgages. As you say, the Financial Conduct Authority regulators have been having a field day with the banks and PPI mis-selling. It's a pity they and their friends at the Serious Fraud Office seem to have run out of puff when negotiating a fair distribution of the Tesco Shareholders Compensation Scheme unveiled last month.

It appears that the Tesco directors acknowledge that Tesco deliberately and repeatedly withheld money owed to suppliers to boost sales artificially and misreported profitability in the months up to mid-August 2014. The last incorrect report was, apparently, the trading statement issued on 29 August 2014. A correction was issued on 22 September, with Tesco revealing a £250m overstatement of half-year 2014 profits arising from these sales figures.

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