The arrest this week of two more suspects linked to the theft of billions of rands in workers’ pensions in the Steinhoff scandal has provided some hope that at last justice will be served.
Peter Schelbert and Hein Odendaal appeared in the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court on Friday.
Schelbert, 63, and Odendaal, 67 handed themselves to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (The Hawks) this week as the net closes in on suspects implicated in the multi-million rand heist.
Schelbert appeared along with co-accused Stephanus Johannes Grobler, 64, who is out on bail of R150 000. Schelbert and Odendaal were each granted bail of R150 000 on Friday.
The Hawks said the trio faced nine counts of fraud, manipulation of financial statements and failure to report fraudulent activities and racketeering.
The Hawks allege that between October and November 2017, Steinhoff auditors refused to sign off on the 2016 annual financial statements of the group. “Consequently, Steinhoff could not publish their annual financial results. It is further alleged by the complainant that the suspects, who were holding executive positions at Steinhoff, created fictitious transactions to the value of €6.5-billion (R197-billion) which resulted in the impact on the share index on the JSE and Frankfurt Security Exchange.
“This financial misrepresentation in Steinhoff International attracted numerous investors who became victims by investing large sums of money to purchase shares within Steinhoff. It is further reported that during the financial years of 2014 until 2016, Steinhoff has been submitting false financial statements.”
The Hawks revealed that “further investigation discovered that a small group of Steinhoff executives implemented various transactions over a number of years, which resulted in inflating the profit and asset value of Steinhoff”.
South African Federation of Trade unions (Saftu) welcomed the latest arrest, saying workers “paid the price for corporate fraud”.
“The Steinhoff scandal was not a victimless crime. It was a corporate robbery that stole from workers, directly affecting their jobs, pensions and economic security,” Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said.
“The workers’ pension and provident funds were gutted. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) had invested billions of public servants’ pension money in Steinhoff shares, which lost over 95% of their value overnight when the scandal broke in December 2017.
“This catastrophic collapse eroded the retirement savings of teachers, nurses, police officers and other public-sector workers, leaving them with diminished financial security,” Vavi said.
He said thousands of workers lost their jobs as the company collapsed and Steinhoff subsidiaries were forced to cut jobs and shut down operations to stay afloat.
“Workers paid the price. At the same time, executives enriched themselves through fraudulent accounting. Economic instability affected working-class communities. The Steinhoff collapse shook the JSE and wiped out billions in investments in pension funds, municipal
savings, and union investment portfolios. Many working-class families that relied on these funds for housing, education, and healthcare suffered long-term setbacks.”
The case was postponed to May 30.
