By Claire Moffat

An investigation by Wesfarmers into deals with about 30 unnamed overseas suppliers which helped boost Target’s earnings by about A$17million or 25%, in the six months ended December 2015, has placed yet another Australian retailer under a cloud.

The news broke in The Australian Financial Review’s Chanticleer column on Thursday, and the suppliers are understood to have agreed to give Target additional rebates in return for a guarantee of higher prices before the end of the financial year.

This now places a shadow over the reputations of former Target managing director Stuart Machin and other Target executives until Wesfarmers releases the results of the probe which is expected to be within this month. Wesfarmers’ head of group accounting, assurance and risk Colin Pavlovich, is heading the investigation in conjunction with Wesfarmers’ auditors, EY.

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This story first appeared in Appliance Retailer.