Three years and three months after the Steinhoff share price collapsed, following the disclosure of widespread ‘financial irregularities’, disgraced former CEO Markus Jooste might be about to face his first criminal charge, says a Moneyweb report.

While the latest move in this very long-drawn-out corporate scandal will be welcomed by Steinhoff shareholders, who suffered the pain of a R200bn wipeout in the company’s market capitalisation back in December 2017, legal experts are not holding out much hope for any early court victories by prosecutors.

According to an article in a leading German magazine – Manager Magazin – the public prosecutor’s office in the city of Oldenburg in Germany has completed a six-year criminal investigation into ‘balance sheet manipulation’.

Earlier this week Manager Magazin said that following completion of its investigation: ‘The public prosecutor’s office is bringing charges against three people from within the Steinhoff Group and one other person.’

Coincidentally, the day after Manager Magazin’s latest report, SA Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola was in Parliament defending the SA law enforcement agency’s slow pace of action against Steinhoff.

One company law expert reportedly told Moneyweb yesterday that while the German authorities might be able to act speedily with regard to German-based individuals, any attempts to prosecute Jooste would involve extradition proceedings.

‘Given his track record Jooste would fight this through every possible court in SA and that could take three to five years,’ said the lawyer. He said the best chance of getting Jooste into court lay with the NPA, but only if it focused on prosecuting just one criminal offence.

‘The clearest one and therefore the one most likely to succeed is insider trading,’ the lawyer is quoted as saying.

Full Moneyweb report