Disgraced former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste sped up almost R30m in bonus payments to himself without requisite approvals just months before the company imploded, and came within a whisker of securing almost R1bn from one of the group’s affiliates in a deceitful deal.
A report by professional services firm PwC found that Jooste, who later committed suicide as the net was closing, also pushed through bonus payments of about R23m without the board’s knowledge.
The payment was made in May 2017, facilitated by Jooste’s right-hand man in the scheme to defraud Steinhoff, Dirk Schreiber, who held the role of European finance chief at the time.
Schreiber was in 2023 sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail by a German court for his central role in the collapse of Steinhoff that saw investors lose more than R200bn.
The May 2017 payments totalling €1.57m were against company policy in that they were pushed forward by months, with one of the payouts only due in October 2018.
Jooste also pushed for and was paid a further €500,000. This, too, was done without the knowledge of the remuneration committee (Remco) — the committee’s chair only found out about it after inquiries by PwC when it started investigations.
The €500,000 payment was made in March 2017.
An email from Jooste to Schreiber is damning: “I have switched some of my remuneration around and need to settle taxes tomorrow, can you please arrange to deposit tomorrow an additional €500,000 in my Commerzbank personal account as part of my total package from the group Please. Please confirm once done please!”
Schreiber sought to escape responsibility, arguing he was acting on Jooste’s instruction.
According to the PwC report, the €500,000 payment seems to have been motivated by Jooste’s desire and urgency to fulfil his SA tax obligations.
“As per mail from Ms [sic] Jooste dated February 28 2017, we paid the €500,000 based on Mr Jooste’s order. As February 28 is a tax-paying day in SA and Mr Jooste needed the payment urgently, he contacted me directly,” Schreiber told PwC.
The auditing firm said evidence suggests the €500,000 wasn’t due to Jooste.
“Mr Jooste received a payment of €500,000 on March 1 2017 after he instructed Mr Schreiber per email on February 28 2017, requesting the payment to be made in his Commerzbank bank account. It appears that Mr Jooste was not entitled to the payment as no evidence could be obtained to indicate that the Remco and/or supervisory board approved the bonus of €500,000 paid to Mr Jooste,” the report reads.
PwC also found that €1.57m in bonuses was paid to Jooste when not due. Former Steinhoff nonexecutive director and chair of Remco Theunie Lategan confirmed as much to PwC. "[...] neither I nor any of my fellow Remco members were made aware of or had any knowledge that bonus payments were made to MJ [Jooste] on May 31 2017. No doubt if we were made aware hereof [sic], we would immediately have questioned it, as it clearly does not fall in the normal bonus payment cycle,” he told PwC.
Lategan died in 2020.
Evidence before PwC also shows that Jooste tried to secure a £50m loan from Steinhoff affiliate Hachmer Beheer in a deal that would have hidden the true recipient of the loan — Mayfair Speculators, his racehorse business.
The deal ultimately fell through in late 2017.
Stéhan Grobler, an erstwhile Steinhoff executive, told PwC that Jooste had sounded him out in late 2016 about sourcing a dormant Dutch company to facilitate the “loan” to Mayfair Speculators.
Grobler was arrested the day before Jooste committed suicide for his role in the collapse of Steinhoff.
Former Steinhoff CFO Ben la Grange was last year sentenced to 10 years in prison, five of which were suspended, after pleading guilty to one charge of fraud in the Steinhoff saga. He has promised to testify against Grobler, who is set to appear again in court this year.
Steinhoff is also demanding that Grobler pay back almost R300m he received in salaries, bonuses and other incentives.
Grobler worked for the group in various capacities in a period spanning 19 years.
The Reserve Bank in October seized almost R70m from Grobler’s accounts over breaches of exchange control rules.
The Bank also seized about R60m in cash and properties from Berdine Odendaal, who is said to have been Jooste’s lover, for the money she allegedly received from Mayfair Speculators between 2011 and 2015.
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