Jooste sacked as Steinhoff CEO


He cannot be blamed for lying in a nutshell. He's already lying:

Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste said that Deloitte's proposal for further investigations into accounting irregularities would have a devastating effect on investor confidence, credit lines and the Steinhoff share price.

Jooste was against the investigation as the firm had already commissioned investigations, which took two years and found no wrongdoing.

"I was not aware of any accounting irregularity in the books of Steinhoff," Jooste said- referring to Deloitte's report.
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So he wasn't aware of the non disclosed related transactions meant to acquire assets owned by himself and people around him at inflated prices?
 
His evidence about his own behaviour is worthless IMO...

His explanation of the oversight issues, is a statement of the obvious deficiencies:

Jooste unpacks Steinhoff's multi-layered reporting

In his testimony to Parliament former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste unpacked the complexity of the firm's reporting. His testimony echoes that of former CFO Ben La Grange - multiple auditors were responsible for the reports of the multinational business units.
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"I did not come here to blame anybody I personally believe all the colleagues I worked with worked in the best interests of the company. They gave their lives, it was part of the daily DNA of the business."

"I do not blame anyone for what happened at Steinhoff."

Zupta & Company - this is how you should elegantly represent yourself.
 
TelkomUseless said:
Nobody gets prosecuted in for a "failing" business (just like government/ANC people fraud and corruption).

So yea.. don't expect anything from him
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You were spot on - salute.

Jooste said that Steinhoff is the biggest corporate failure in SA, and not a the biggest corporate scandal, as suggested by Scof chair Yunus Carrim.

“The word scandal is for writers of sensation," he said.
 
I'm trying to understand how this all now falls on Jooste.

Would have known or be aware of the extent of this over valuation? Just seems like more and more players who would have known are now in the clear and everything falls on Jooste. I don't think he would have know the extent of it. He's but 1 of an army of people.
 
Pitbull said:
I'm trying to understand how this all now falls on Jooste.

Would have known or be aware of the extent of this over valuation? Just seems like more and more players who would have known are now in the clear and everything falls on Jooste. I don't think he would have know the extent of it. He's but 1 of an army of people.
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In theory, because he is the CEO, the buck stops with him. If one of the subordinates have proof that they let him know, and he let it continue, he is the most guilty.
Unless of course if he can prove that he was acting on instruction from the board.
 
Barbarian Conan said:
In theory, because he is the CEO, the buck stops with him. If one of the subordinates have proof that they let him know, and he let it continue, he is the most guilty.
Unless of course if he can prove that he was acting on instruction from the board.
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That part I get. I'm just not convinced myself. There is way more players at play here for it to be inflated to such an extent.
 
Pitbull said:
I'm trying to understand how this all now falls on Jooste.

Would have known or be aware of the extent of this over valuation? Just seems like more and more players who would have known are now in the clear and everything falls on Jooste. I don't think he would have know the extent of it. He's but 1 of an army of people.
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He was the beneficiary of many undisclosed transactions overvaluing assets sold by friends and himself to Steinhoff so he definitely knew.

As did all the people around him and most likely Wiese.
 
pinball wizard said:
He oversaw the cooking of the books that led to that false market perception and false valuation?
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Isn't the person responsible for the book and the general value of the company the CFO?

Like I said, this is a massive company. I'm not sure how these things worked there.
 
Pitbull said:
Isn't the person responsible for the book and the general value of the company the CFO?

Like I said, this is a massive company. I'm not sure how these things worked there.
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I am pretty sure that this was a massive theft that involved only a couple of guys at the top and for sure MJ was involved every step of the way.
 
Pitbull said:
Isn't the person responsible for the book and the general value of the company the CFO?

Like I said, this is a massive company. I'm not sure how these things worked there.
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He surrounded himself by a bunch of yes-men. They all should take responsibility.
 
Pitbull said:
Isn't the person responsible for the book and the general value of the company the CFO?

Like I said, this is a massive company. I'm not sure how these things worked there.
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Both CEO and CFO certify the accuracy of the accounts and are responsible for it.
 
Shouldn't the independent bookkeepers (PWC etc) alerted someone ?
 
f2wohf said:
He was the beneficiary of many undisclosed transactions overvaluing assets sold by friends and himself to Steinhoff so he definitely knew.

As did all the people around him and most likely Wiese.
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That's the key thing. It was Jooste, his friends and contacts who were profiting from the crooked asset sales and purchases. Also what is the point of a board of directors if they aren't getting concerned about obvious things like buying companies and assets for way above market value?

There was also a report that Wiese unloaded a chunk of stock not long before everything came out and he has made statements that give the impression he knew something was amiss at least 6 months before. It's not unreasonable to think that he planned to slowly and steadily dump the bulk of his holding. Probably hoping to do so before the stock went down too much. There's all this talk about how great Wiese is and his impeccable integrity, but let's face it money influences people's behaviour, especially when they're facing losing a large percentage of their fortune to which they've become attached. That in spite of the fact that even if they lost 90% of their money they could still enjoy an opulent lifestyle well beyond anything most people could hope for.

Jooste's the same. He couldn't possibly need all that money, but he just wanted more and more for its own sake. And if he genuinely had no idea what was going on then he is monumentally incompetent and still doesn't deserve his wealth.

TelkomUseless said:
Shouldn't the independent bookkeepers (PWC etc) alerted someone ?
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They are supposed to pick these things up, but companies are deliberately opaque to make it hard for anyone to understand what is going on. As far as I know they're looking for irregularities rather than whether the company is doing stupid things like paying to much for purchases or charging too little for sales. These guys were typically shifting assets in such a way as to hide the fact that what they were doing was shifting money out of the company. The board should be much closer to things though.
 
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