GN Store Nord's Q2 hit by U.S. fraud case, shares fall

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's GN Store Nord announced on Thursday it would take a one-off charge of 150 million Danish crowns ($22.35 million) on Thursday citing a case of accounting fraud involving an employee at its U.S. hearing device distribution network Beltone.

Shares in the company, which also makes headsets, opened 11 percent lower after the news, a profit warning and a set of second-quarter results which feel short of market expectations.

GN Store Nord said it had terminated the contract of the employee, a vice president for finance, and said the fraud is still under investigation.

"The revelation of an accounting fraud at Beltone of 150 million Danish crowns is very disappointing," Credit Suisse analyst Christoph Gretler said in a note to clients.

GN's shares were down 8.5 percent on the Danish benchmark index OMXC20CAP <.OMXC20CAP> at 0830 GMT.

(Reporting by Teis Jensen; editing by Jason Neely)