Jooste has told the JSE that he doesn’t agree with its findings and on 14 December 2022 approached the Financial Services Tribunal for an order suspending the JSE’s decisions. The tribunal on Tuesday dismissed the suspension application. The payment of the fines is still being reconsidered. 

The JSE said it is opposing Jooste's challenge, but the ruling on Tuesday means it is in a position to impose its public censure and bar him from holding any directorships.

The JSE said it had imposed two fines of R7,5 million, the maximum allowable. One is for releasing financial statements that did not comply with listing requirements and contained incorrect, false and misleading statements, and the other is for a fictitious invoice that falsely inflated income by R376 million.

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In August, the JSE fined Steinhoff's former CFO Ben la Grange R2 million and barred him from acting as a company director for 10 years, in part for processing that fictitious invoice. The handwritten note, allegedly given to La Grange by Jooste, was also used by the SA Reserve Bank to convince a court to sign off on an order to attach Jooste's assets. 

Jooste's abrupt resignation in December 2017 triggered a share price collapse and has been an existential threat to Steinhoff, which managed to settle multiple lawsuits against it. Despite this, the firm still has debt of €10 billion (R185 billion) and is looking to reach a settlement with its creditors that would see them owning most of the company and delisting.

'Complex case with multiple threads'

Sasfin Securities chief global equities strategist David Shapiro said it has taken six years for these types of sanctions to materialise, adding it was a complex case with multiple threads, which made it difficult for organisations to make hasty decisions.

"I think what has happened is that it has been very difficult for all these organisations [such as the JSE] to impose penalties against him, to challenge him, and to bring him to order because the issues around Jooste are so complex and they couldn’t get full details of the investigations."

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Shapiro said this move by the JSE was a step in the right direction and probably foreshadowed further legal cases, both criminal and civil, that would likely be brought against Jooste in the coming years.

"Sooner or later we are going to see some of the big cases against him [Jooste]. He is going to be spending a lot of time now fighting off cases and defending himself."

Steinhoff is still waiting for a court date in its bid to recoup R850 million from Jooste. The company has launched a civil case to claw back the money paid in salaries, bonuses, and other incentives to its former CEO.

A case of accounting fraud, laid by German prosecutors against Jooste, is also expected to go to trial early this year. A case against two former Steinhoff executives, who are living in Germany, is set to begin on 3 May 2023.

News24