Shamed Steinhoff CEO Jooste’s Lanzerc Wine Estate, Luxury Cars, and Billions in Assets Seized by Reserve Bank

• The South African Reserve Bank is gunning for the valuable assets of disgraced Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste
• The Central bank seized Jooste's high-profile wine estate, several luxury cars, and his Hermanus compound, amongst other things
• The seizure comes five years after Jooste was implicated in the biggest cooperate money laundering scandal to hit South Africa

WESTERN CAPE - The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has gone after former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste's billion rand assets portfolio.

The assets seizure comes after the Western Cape High Court granted the SARB an urgent ex parte order allowing for the attachment of assets with realisable value.

According to Daily Maverick, Jooste is accused of money laundering at the global holding company Steinhoff International with SARB linking the former CEO to R4.8 billion worth of contraventions of the Exchange Control Regulations.

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The disgraced CEO is accused of using Steinhoff and his racehorse company, Mayfair Speculators, to drain large sums of money from Steinhoff in one of South Africa’s largest corporate scandals.

When the scandal surfaced, the financial mismanagement and fraud caused a 95% drop in Steinhoff's value on the JSE, resulting in a significant loss in the value of pensions held in the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF).

Five years on, the SARB has come to collect, and the litany of assets attached include Jooste's Lanzerac Wine Estate in Stellenbosch and a Hermanus compound, including five luxury cars.

The Jooste family's Silverroak Trust has also been seized, comprising R98 million in art, R1 billion in other financial assets, R130 million in loans, and R98 million in transportable goods, Business Tech reported.

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The Central Bank conducted additional investigations and seized critical papers, including hardcopies and electronic files, such as flash drives, memory sticks, CDs, or external hard drives containing critical information.

South Africans react to the seizure of Markus Jooste's assets

South Africans are over the moon that Jooste is finally answering for his financial crimes.

Here are some comments:

@bambo_malesela asked:

"When are the banks freezing & closing his accounts?"

@Sudeshin_007 commented:

"Finally, something is happening."

@peterdevey added:

"Wow, watched Steinheist a few days ago and was perturbed that Jooste seemed to be getting away from any serious repercussions. Still arguing about his fine for blatant insider trading."

Another scandal rocked Steinhoffal after ex-CFO was slapped with fine

In a related story, Briefly News reported that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange slapped former Steinhoff chief financial officer Ben La Grange with a R2 million fine for breaching its rules.

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He was also barred from holding the director position at any listed company for a decade for failing to fulfill his duties.

A News24 report states that these sanctions stem from a fake handwritten invoice falsely inflated the company's income by more than R 376 million.

Source: Briefly News