By Shaun Jacobs.
The Reserve Bank has seized R67 million from former Steinhoff legal head Stéhan Grobler for breaching exchange control regulations.
The R67 million seized from Grobler for the breaching of exchange controls will be moved to the National Revenue Fund.
In two notices published in the Government Gazette, the Reserve Bank revealed it has seized R66 million from a loan account Grobler had with Suez Beleggings and declared R871,652 forfeit from a trust in Grobler’s name.
Another R100,000 or so was seized from shares Grobler held in the companies Suez Beleggings, Steff Grobler Beherende and Keurview Aandeleblok Beperk.
The National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks secured arrest warrants for ex-Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste and former legal head Stehan Grobler in March.
The two men named as the lead suspects were involved in the 2017 demise of the company that owned Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the US.
A day after Jooste died in Hermanus on 21 March, Grobler handed himself over to the Hawks. He has been charged with racketeering, fraud, manipulation of financial statements, and failing to report fraudulent activities.
This comes on the back of former Steinhoff CFO Ben la Grange being sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of fraud earlier this month.
The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court ruled that five years of La Grange’s sentence would be suspended on condition that he was not found guilty of fraud in a higher court during that period.
He will also have to provide evidence to the state in any further criminal proceedings against directors, officers and employees of Steinhoff.
La Grange entered into a plea agreement for one count of fraud of more than R367 million, the police said.
South Africa’s law enforcement agencies have been slow to act with regard to the Steinhoff case, with many pointing to its immense complexity as the reason for delays in prosecution.
German authorities were the first to prosecute a former Steinhoff executive, with its former European finance chief Dirk Schreiber imprisoned last year.
A German court handed him a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence after he was convicted of accounting violations and aiding credit fraud, although this was reduced by a year because of how long the probe took.
Schreiber provided information on the investigations in South Africa.
Jooste was also charged in the German case but failed to show up in court for his trial in April 2023. He only appeared once, in South Africa’s parliament, when in 2018, he told lawmakers in Cape Town that the company’s woes originated from a protracted dispute with a former partner.
George Alan Evans, who was charged in that case next to Jooste, settled his case by paying €30,000. Ex-director Siegmar Schmidt received a two year suspended sentence from the German court.