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The highly anticipated trial of disgraced South African mogul Markus Jooste is set to commence on April 18 in Oldenburg, Germany, where he will face charges related to Steinhoff’s financial fraud scandal.
The court has provisionally set aside 10 days for the trial, but it is unclear whether Jooste will be in attendance or if he will be extradited. Jooste resigned from Steinhoff in 2017 when the first signs of what would become South Africa’s largest private sector fraud scandal came to light.
Nearly two weeks ago, Markus Jooste was served two fines totaling $882,000, and barred from serving as a director for two decades. According to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the fines were a result of Jooste violating listing requirements by releasing financial statements that contained incorrect, false, and misleading statements.
In March 2021, former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste, alongside three colleagues, was charged with balance sheet fraud by German prosecutors for falsely claiming to trade “know-how” in an alleged fraudulent deal in 2010 that resulted in a €95-million (about R1 billion at the time) boost in revenues for a Steinhoff subsidiary.
The Oldenburg regional court has confirmed that Jooste’s trial will begin on April 18, and will last 10 days, ending on June 14. The marks exactly five years, four months, and 12 days since his resignation.
Steinhoff‘s accounting practices have been the subject of debate since 2014. Insider trading in the company dates back to its initial public offering in 1998, according to people familiar with the group’s operations, and Jooste acted on both sides of several transactions.
Markus Jooste’s involvement in Steinhoff’s accounting scandal and abrupt resignation in December 2017 caused a sharp drop in the company’s share price, wiping out many people’s investments and livelihoods.
The company still owes more than $10 billion in debt and is attempting to reach an agreement with its creditors that would result in them owning the majority of the company and delisting.
Jooste, whose assets have been frozen by the SA Reserve Bank, has not spoken to the media since leaving the company he ran for years.
