By Lehlohonolo Lehana
The German trial of Markus Jooste, former chief executive officer of scandal-ridden retailer Steinhoff International, was halted on day one after he failed to show up in court earlier on Tuesday.
Bernd Gross, Jooste’s lawyer, told the court his client can’t travel because his attorneys keep his passport under an arrangement with South African authorities. He’s facing much bigger probes and allegations there than in Germany, he said.
A German investigation dating back to 2015 led to criminal charges against Jooste and two other former directors of a Steinhoff subsidiary.
German news magazine Stern reported that prosecutors have applied for an arrest warrant against Jooste.
The trial is taking place at the Oldenburg regional court in the state of Lower Saxony.
The charges Jooste faces include five counts of accounting fraud between 2011 and 2014, that were committed at various subsidiaries of Steinhoff.
The company perpetrated what’s become known as South Africa’s biggest corporate fraud.
Given Jooste’s absence, the prosecutors, his defence team and the German judges will now decide behind closed doors how to proceed.
Two former Steinhoff executives Dirk Schreiber and Siegmar Schmidt – both former managing directors of Steinhoff Europe Group Services and Tau Enterprises – also face their own court case over the accounting fraud scandal.
Jooste, Evans, Schreiber and Schmidt were charged in 2021 with balance sheet fraud.
Schreiber and Schmidt’s case is expected to start next month.
The accounting scandal emerged in late 2017, after Jooste resigned amid an investigation into accounting irregularities. At the time, Steinhoff’s share price plunged by 90% in a week, wiping over R200 billion off the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
The transactions were used to manipulate Steinhoff’s balance sheets. The value of the company’s real estate assets was also inflated by 820 million euros.