Steinheist author and Financial Mail Editor, Rob Rose, says the Hawks must now reconsider who to hold accountable in the Markus Jooste fraud investigation.
This comes after Jooste died from a self-inflicted gun wound on Thursday – a day after he was fined R475 million by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for misrepresenting Steinhoff’s financial statements published between the years 2014 and 2017.
Rose says the public expects accountability.
“Steinhoff’s itself has managed to repay some of the people, some of the money that it lost, that they lost. So there has been some sort of settlement on that score, but that comes out of the company. In terms of personal accountability in who goes to jail for this fraud I think that’s something that the investigators the Hawks will now have to look at and reconsider given what’s happened here. Certainly, the public wants there to be some accountability for the largest fraud in the country.”
Death of former Steinhoff CEO a big mystery amid half-billion rand fine: Rob Rose
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) says Jooste earned millions of rands in performance bonuses based on deceptive statements. It claims the action also destroyed billions of rand in Steinhoff market value both on the JSE and Frankfurt.
The FSCA says the Hawks have now been roped in to investigate Jooste, whom they have accused of not cooperating with their investigations.
