More than six years after the Steinhoff accounting scandal unfolded, the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority are not likely to let Markus Jooste’s suicide slow down their investigations or the wheels of justice.
NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said that between 2014 and 2016, Jooste played a major role in managing Steinhoff, which Mahanjana referred to as a “criminal enterprise”. “In this case, the executor of the estate must notify the Master of the Court and all creditors, including the South African Revenue Service, if the estate is not able to pay all the monies due.
The insolvency practitioner told Daily Maverick that, after the sequestration of a debtor’s estate , the court may set aside any transaction whereby he, in collusion with another person, disposed of property belonging to him in a manner that would have the effect of prejudicing his creditors. However, Van der Spuy said they did not diligently execute the trust deeds and administered the trust assets on a continuing basis – as assets held separately from their personal estates.
The family transferred their ownership of the household content to the trust over a period of four years; and The Financial Services Tribunal ordered the FSCA to recalculate an “appropriate administrative penalty” on the grounds that the contents of the SMS were “vague and imprecise”. Although Jooste was meant to pay the R20-million fine by 6 January 2023, he tied the matter up in continuing litigation and never paid a cent.
The FSCA investigation reportedly shows how the false income reported impacted the cost of sales, which resulted in higher profitability, and had an impact on cash and cash equivalents, restatements and goodwill. By the afternoon of Wednesday, 20 March, Jooste would have known about the R475-million fine and that Schreiber had cooperated with the investigation, which implies that he sang like a canary. Jooste also would have known that he was supposed to appear in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Friday, 22 March.Jooste never admitted culpability, denying to the end that he was aware of any “accounting irregularities”.
“The investigation remains confidential, so I can’t disclose who else we will be investigating,” he said.