Jooste among 8 named for dubious deals
Steinhoff International identified eight people, including former CEO Markus Jooste, as those allegedly behind questionable transactions that brought the global retailer to near collapse.
The company’s executives were compelled by a parliamentary committee to release the names, even as chairperson Heather Sonn and CEO Louis du Preez warned it could jeopardise investigations and break European privacy laws.
The revelations come after a forensic probe by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) uncovered €6.5 billion of irregular transactions with eight firms from 2009 and 2017, according to a summarised report released on Friday.
“We want the emphasis to be on prosecutions,” Sonn told lawmakers yesterday.
According to parliament’s laws, any of its committees can force that information be provided, with the promise of immunity as long as no perjury is involved.
‘Precarious position’
The names are being released as Steinhoff said it remained in a “precarious position”. Steinhoff is seeking to finalise agreements with creditors after revelations of accounting irregularities in December 2017 wiped out almost 95% of its value.
The Hawks told lawmakers that one investigation into fraud was at an advanced stage, that the probe has been extended and its team “enhanced” so wrongdoers can be brought to justice.
Siegmar Schmidt, a former Steinhoff Europe director, Dirk Schreiber, a German national and Steinhoff’s ex-head of finance in Europe, George Alan Evans, a director of Geneva-based Campion Capital SA, Ben la Grange, Steinhoff’s ex-chief financial officer, Stehan Grobler, Steinhoff’s ex-company secretary and Davide Romano and Jean-Noel Pasquier, who are also listed as being part of Campion Capital.
None of them were available to comment.
Heavy going
Having laboured on the report for well over a year, PwC said it planned to dig deeper into the accounting misdeeds as it seeks to prepare its 2017 and 2018 audited earnings, due next month.
The Hawks were chastised by Yunus Carrim, chairperson of parliament’s oversight committee on finance, for taking so long to investigate the matter.
Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya said having the names of those allegedly involved would help the probe. –