Germany to try Markus Jooste on fraud charges
A German court said Monday it would put on trial two former managers of scandal-hit retail giant Steinhoff, accused of using fake transactions to artificially inflate the group's profits.
Prosecutors announced charges in March against four suspects, but the regional court in the city of Oldenburg said the cases of two of the accused who live abroad will be handled separately.
Prosecutors allege that "fictitious transactions" worth more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) were carried out to boost the company's books, while real estate assets were allegedly inflated by 820 million euros.
The four accused have not been named by the court, but media reports say Steinhoff's former CEO Markus Jooste is among them.
Steinhoff was hit by a huge scandal in 2017 when it was investigated on suspicion of fraud, with a reported six-billion-euro hole in its accounts.
The South Africa-based company, which is listed in both Frankfurt and Johannesburg, saw nearly 98 percent of its share value wiped out as it faced a barrage of litigation from aggrieved shareholders and business partners, including former chairman Christo Wiese.
Jooste resigned after the scandal broke but denied all knowledge of accounting fraud.
Steinhoff was fined 13.5 million rand ($818,000) by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange last October for breaching listing requirements including publishing "false and misleading" information.
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