A friend of late Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste has been found guilty of insider trading after being warned to sell his shares before the price collapsed in December 2017 after huge fraud was revealed at the company.
Gerhardus Diedricks Burger was found guilty in the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court on Thursday after acting on Jooste’s tip-off.
Burger, who pleaded guilty to three counts of insider trading, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted of a similar offence during the suspension, the National Prosecuting Authority said.
“He also has to testify in the criminal proceedings against his accomplices,” the NPA said.
“The court also issued a confiscation order for about R1.8m seized by Swiss authorities.”
After the collapse of the share price the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) found Burger guilty of insider trading, and fined him R3m, while referring him for criminal prosecution.
The Steinhoff case, one of SA’s biggest cases of corporate fraud yet, has been “one of the most complex commercial crime cases” to prosecute, the NPA said.
“At a point when a significant breakthrough was made to enrol the case earlier this year ... Jooste took his life on the eve of his arrest, thus escaping the hands of justice when it mattered the most,” it said.
Former Steinhoff CFO Andries Benjamin la Grange, who was arrested in June and later granted R150,000 bail, is appearing before the same court.
La Grange faces two counts of racketeering, five of fraud, one of corruption and three counts of contravention of the Financial Markets Act.
With Andrew Linder
Update: September 26 2024
This story has been updated with new information throughout.
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