Markus Jooste facing new fraud allegations: report
The Hawks are investigating new fraud and money-laundering allegations against former Steinhoff chief executive Markus Jooste whose empire collapsed three years ago in what is said to be South Africa’s biggest corporate fraud.
The Sunday Times reported that the Hawks are targeting the bank recordsof Jooste’s horse-racing company, Mayfair Speculators, between 2000 and 2009.
The Hawks attached details of bank transactions involving hundreds of millions of rands moved between Steinhoff, Mayfair Speculators and other Jooste entities.
These include a company breeding thoroughbred horses, involving transactions of about R52 million, and millions into property development companies. One transaction included the transfer of about R2.6 million to Bentley SA, in January 2006.
“Ultimately, voluminous documents were made available to us. We are talking about more than 1,000 pages that investigators have to go through,” Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya told the paper.
“We have divided our team into groupings to go and study the documents for the purpose of criminal investigation. We are not interested in generic auditing of the firm, we want the criminal part of it. It is just the complexity of this case, because it has international activities.”
On Friday, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) fined Jooste and others at least R241 million for insider trading.
The penalty on Jooste comes after the authority found that on 30 November 2017, shortly before the much-publicised significant decrease in the market value of Steinhoff shares, the former CEO was privy to Steinhoff-related inside information.
“Whilst privy to inside information, he disclosed some of the information in a ‘warning SMS’ encouraging four individuals close to him to dispose of their Steinhoff shares prior to the publication of some of the inside information to the rest of the market. Three recipients acted on his disclosure and encouragement and sold Steinhoff shares,” the FSCA said.
Steinhoff collapsed after accounting fraud was discovered in late 2017, wiping billions from its market value.
The FCSA penalised the following parties:
- R161.5 million, plus interest – Markus Jooste, former Steinhoff CEO;
- R3 million – Gerhardus Diedericks Burger, an acquaintance of Jooste, for selling his Steinhoff shares shortly after receiving an SMS from Jooste 30 November 2017;
- R18,328 – Marthinus Swiegelaar, Jooste’s chauffeur at the time, after reacting to Jooste’s warning SMS on 30 November 2017;
- R115.8 million – Ocsan Investment Enterprises (Pty) Limited (Ocsan), a company that was controlled by Ockie Oosthuizen, an acquaintance of Jooste. Oosthuizen instructed Ocsan’s sale of Steinhoff shares on 30 November 2017 after an SMS from Jooste.
“Effectively, Mr Jooste is solely liable for R122,927,366 out of the R161 568 068. The difference consisting of the R38,622,374 and R18,328 being Ocsan and Mr Swiegelaar’s ill-gotten benefits that qualifies for disgorgement may be recovered once,” the authority said.
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