The net has tightened around Steinhoff's inner circle. With a fine of R359 million, the FSCA signals that accountability for one of South Africa's largest corporate collapses will not end with a boardroom exit or tragedy, but with personal financial consequences.
Former Steinhoff director Stephanus Johannes (Stehan) Grobler was this week handed the second-largest fine (R358,750,000 or R359-million) relating to fraudulent financial statements for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 financial years as well as the 2017 half year.
During that time frame, Grobler served as company secretary, head of treasury, and in-house legal counsel to the Steinhoff Group. He was also a director of several Steinhoff subsidiaries.
On Wednesday, 20 March 2024, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) announced that it was fining former CEO Markus Jooste R475 million for violating the Financial Markets Act by issuing false or misleading statements about Steinhoff International, which Jooste knew or reasonably should have known were false, misleading or deceptive.
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The FSCA waived any fines against Steinhoff's former European finance chief, Dirk Schreiber, in exchange for his cooperation. Schreiber had already been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by German authorities.
By the afternoon of Wednesday, 20 March, Jooste would have known about the R475 million fine and that Schreiber had cooperated with the investigation.
He died by suicide on Thursday, 21 March.
An investigation by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority found that Grobler had breached the Financial Markets Act, specifically…