Similar to other recent accounting and financial reporting scandals, the public dis- closure of the Royal Ahold fraud triggered asearch byregulatory agencies, law enforce- ment authorities, the business press, and the investment community for the parties responsible for the fraud. Among the most culpable parties were the top executives of Royal Ahold. The new management team hired by the company's board to replace Ab and Gerrit Jan Heijn created an environment in which fraud often develops and flourishes. The pressure exerted by that management team on their subordinates to achieve unrealistic earnings and revenue goals- when coupled with the significant in- centive compensation that could be earned by reaching those goals-almost certainly prompted much of the selfserving behavior within Royal Ahold Despite the fact that Royal Ahold's Deloitte auditors were intentionally misled by the company's executives and the fact that those auditors were ultimately responsible for ending the fraud, many parties believed that Deloitte should have discovered and 12. "Topside" adjustments are made directly t a company'sfinancial statements without first being recorded in its accounting records