{"id":589079,"date":"2025-03-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=589079"},"modified":"2025-03-29T09:02:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T07:02:03","slug":"steinheist-strikes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/589079-steinheist-strikes-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Steinheist strikes back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Showmax\u2019s new Steinheist episodes shed more light on Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste\u2019s fraud and how the net tightened around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2022, Showmax launched the first Steinheist episodes. This documentary delved into Steinhoff and the biggest corporate scandal in South African history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoff was founded in 1964 by Bruno Steinhoff. Its core operation was acquiring furniture from Eastern Europe and selling it at a premium in Western Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company enjoyed great success, and it acquired 35% of the South African-based furniture company Gommagomma in 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoff and Gommagomma merged in 1998, after which Steinhoff\u2019s headquarters was moved to South Africa, taking full advantage of the country\u2019s low production costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoff went on an aggressive acquisition spree, including a 92.34% stake in Pepkor for R62.8 billion and an 87.21% shareholding in JD Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer also acquired offshore companies, including US-based Mattress Firm and numerous European businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisitions significantly impacted the company\u2019s debt. However, former CEO Markus Jooste dismissed these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that Steinhoff views debt differently from the rating agencies because the cost of financing was so low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoff hit its targets year after year, and its share price experienced incredible growth. It was a darling on the JSE and most analysts sang Jooste\u2019s praises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you bought Steinhoff shares at the beginning of 2000 and held it until 2016 \u2013 at its peak \u2013 you would have achieved an annualised return of 18.85%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in 2017, news broke of major accounting irregularities in Steinhoff\u2019s financial statements, and everything came crashing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share price plummeted, and in 2019, Steinhoff\u2019s liabilities exceeded its assets, making it technically insolvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinhoff International\u2019s 60 years in business ended in October 2023 after the company was delisted and liquidated. It was sold for spare parts, and the money went to creditors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Steinhoff shareholders essentially lost their shares and did not receive any payment or distribution for the shares they held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Steinheist episodes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The late Markus Jooste, former Steinhoff CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Showmax\u2019s 2022 Steinheist documentary delved into the fraud and mismanagement at Steinheist under its chief executive, Markus Jooste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first edition examined how Jooste pulled off the scam of the century and what happened over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the initial release, there have been big developments in the ongoing Steinhoff saga, including the suicide of Markus Jooste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showmax has launched two new Steinheist episodes, which show how the net tightened around Jooste in the build-up to his death on 21 March 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episodes 4 and 5 pick up the story a month after the documentary series\u2019 initial 2022 release, when the Reserve Bank froze R1.4 billion of Jooste\u2019s assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SA Reserve Bank\u2019s action was followed by his 20-year ban and R15 million fine from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then received a record R475 million fine from South Africa\u2019s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police also hit Jooste with a summons to stand trial, and there was the seizure of R60 million of assets from Berdine Odendaal, his alleged mistress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new episodes also explore the ongoing attempts to recover the money and bring Jooste\u2019s accomplices to justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These attempts included insider trading prosecutions in South Africa and fraud convictions in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also includes the arrest of former Steinhoff executive St\u00e9han Grobler and the sentencing and plea deal of Ben la Grange, Steinhoff\u2019s former chief financial officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new episodes show that the wheels of justice do turn, even if a lot more slowly than we\u2019d like,\u201d said director Richard Finn Gregory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a rough time during the state capture years when South Africans started to lose faith that our country could prosecute crimes and make a dent in corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Steinheist episodes show that South Africa\u2019s public institutions have teeth and can prosecute, eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregory believes the new Steinheist episodes will give audiences a sense of clarity and closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This article was first published by Daily Investor<\/a> and is reproduced with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Showmax’s new Steinheist episodes shed more light on Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s fraud and how the net tightened around him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341108,"featured_media":589080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[99346,99347,31160,67755,475,70830,99344,32140,99345,99343,52049],"class_list":["post-589079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-ben-la-grange","tag-berdine-odendaal","tag-christo-wiese","tag-financial-sector-conduct-authority-fsca","tag-multichoice","tag-pepkor","tag-richard-finn-gregory","tag-showmax","tag-stehan-grobler","tag-steinheist","tag-steinhoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589082,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589079\/revisions\/589082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}