Steinhoff: What’s under the table?
What looks like a sneaky loan taken out by Markus Jooste from a Steinhoff subsidiary suddenly changes names
Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste appears to have taken an undisclosed loan of R1bn from a company part-owned by Steinhoff that wasn’t declared to shareholders at the time, according to new court papers. That loan was mysteriously transferred to a company controlled by Jooste’s friend Malcolm King, an FM investigation shows. This raises further questions about Jooste’s role in the enormous accounting scandal that has engulfed the global furniture retailer and caused its share price to collapse. Jooste was a director of holding company Mayfair Speculators until December when, in the wake of his resignation from Steinhoff, he ended all his directorships. It is only thanks to court papers filed by two banks that lent Mayfair money that the existence of the loan has come to light. No record of the loan to Jooste or to his related entities shows up in the annual reports of Steinhoff. Two of three banks (Investec and Absa) that lent to Mayfair moved to recoup the hundreds of millions of ...
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