The SA Reserve Bank has seized several cars belonging to the estate of former Steinhoff boss Markus Jooste, who took his life last year when law enforcement were ready to pounce on him for the fraud he orchestrated at the company that bled billions from investors.
The Bank seized five cars from the estate, including an Isuzu double-cab bakkie valued at R80,000; a Mercedes-Benz SL600 with a R434,300 price tag; a Land Rover Defender valued at R350,000; a Lexus LX570 valued at R293,600; and a Volkswagen Kombi VN 750 with a realisable value of about R344,100.
The Bank also seized personal effects, including jewellery and paintings to the value of R795,400, with the proceeds from the assets set to be forfeited to the National Revenue Fund over breaches of exchange control regulations.
The Bank in April last year seized R60m in cash and property belonging to Berdine Odendaal, who is said to have been Jooste’s lover. The central bank also seized cash held in Odendaal’s five accounts with Absa, Capitec and Standard Bank amounting to R42m. It then confiscated her R18m property in Paarl’s exclusive Val de Vie estate.
It is believed that R60m was transferred from Steinhoff International businesses via Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators to Odendaal in 2011-15, in transactions that contravened exchange control regulations.
In December, the Bank seized millions of rand belonging to former Steinhoff executive Stephanus Grobler.
Grobler is facing criminal charges over the huge fraud that sank the company in what became SA’s largest corporate fraud yet.
The Bank seized R871,000 held in Momentum Wealth and R66m loan accounts declared by Grobler in an outfit called Suez Beleggings, as well as several small amounts held with different entities. The money was frozen over contraventions of SA’s exchange control regulations.
Steinhoff is demanding Grobler pay back nearly R300m he was paid in salaries, bonuses and other incentives.
Grobler, who worked for the group in various capacities for 19 years, is facing a demand of R238m from Steinhoff Africa Holdings, €1.3m from Steinhoff Europe Group Services and €315,000 from Steinhoff Europe.
Ibex, formerly Steinhoff, in July dropped its legal challenge to the forfeiture of more than R6bn to the state in a settlement that ended its long-running dispute with the SA Reserve Bank over infringements of exchange control rules.
The Bank and Ibex reached a settlement, which included the prohibition on Ibex to trade in Pepkor shares, ending the costly dispute.
A PwC report into the collapse of Steinhoff laid bare the fraud that took place at the highest levels of the group, with Jooste fingered as the mastermind behind the multiyear fraud that duped investors.
PwC identified design deficiencies in and around the European consolidation in that “journals can be deleted and changed after having been posted”.
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