Steinhoff International said on Tuesday it had started legal proceedings against former Chief Executive Markus Jooste and ex-finance chief Ben La Grange to recover certain salary and bonus payments they got prior to 2017. The South African retailer’s CEO Louis du Preez told lawmakers in March that Jooste, la Grange, along with six other people, were involved in inflating Steinhoff profits and asset values over several years, forcing the firm to restate years of financials.
Steinhoff first flagged holes in its accounts in December 2017 — leading to the exposure of a more than $7 billion accounting fraud — shocking investors who had backed its rise from a small South African outfit to a discount furniture retailer straddling four continents.
Steinhoff, which is also listed in Frankfurt, said it launched the legal proceedings on June 19 in the Cape Town High Court. Jooste’s lawyer, Callie Albertyn, could not be immediately reached for comment. La Grange’s lawyer was also not available for immediate comment.
In its delayed 2017 annual report, the owner of Mattress Firm in the U.S. and furniture retailer Conforama in France, said that Jooste received a bonus payment of 2.1 million euros ($2.37 million) in March and May 2017. It said 500,000 euros of that amount was neither proposed by the human resources and remuneration committee nor approved by the supervisory board.
Steinhoff also said it received summons on June 21 from Barents & Krans on behalf of Hamilton B.V, initiating legal proceedings against the retailer and others “for declaratory relief relating to currently unquantified damages arising from alleged wrongful acts”.
