By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Billionaire businessman Christo Wiese is a step closer to getting back Lanzerac wine estate from his former Steinhoff colleague Markus Jooste.
Wiese launched a lawsuit in 2021 against Jooste in a bid to get back the exclusive property in Stellenbosch or alternatively the monetary value of the transaction, claiming he had sold to the latter under false pretences.
They were colleagues at Steinhoff until Jooste abruptly resigned as CEO in 2017 at the first signs of what was to become SA’s largest private sector fraud scandal.
Wiese admitted that the Steinhoff scandal was the biggest challenge of his life, having lost over R59bn in the scandal.
He managed to recover only R8bn.
Wiese wants a court to cancel the contract and return the wine estate to him – or force Jooste and Lanzerac Estate Investments to pay him out what the estate is worth. In return, he would return the (now almost worthless) Steinhoff shares he received as payment.
Western Cape High Court Judge Ashley Binns-Ward ruled that Wiese could return any shares in Steinhoff as long as they were in the same class as the shares he had received.
The ruling means that the case can go to trial. No date has yet been set down for a hearing.
The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) attached billions of rand of assets including those of the Silver Oak Trust, art worth about R98.78 million, financial assets worth R1.21 billion, loans receivable of R131.12m, Jooste’s house in Voelklip, Hermanus, six luxury vehicles, jewellery and other art worth some R795 400, books, documents, electronic devices and passwords, and the Lanzerac Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
The SARB’s Financial Surveillance Department’s Compliance and Enforcement Division started investigating alleged exchange control transgressions at Steinhoff International Holdings in early 2018.
Wiese praised the reserve bank for attaching the assets linked to his former business colleague.