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Ex-Steinhoff boss Markus Jooste in September 2018
Photo: Mike Hutchings / REUTERS
According to the South African police, former CEO Markus Jooste, who was involved in an accounting scandal at the furniture company Steinhoff, is dead. The 63-year-old died in the afternoon with a gunshot wound to the head shortly after being taken to a hospital in the coastal town of Hermanus, a police spokesman told the dpa news agency . The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) also confirmed Jooste's death.
The police have launched an investigation, the spokesman said. The state television broadcaster SABC reported that it was suicide. The day before, the South African financial regulator FSCA had imposed a fine of 475 million rand (the equivalent of around 23 million euros) on Jooste. Jooste made false and misleading statements in connection with the Steinhoff accounting scandal, the FSCA said. Jooste would have had to make the payment within a month.
The South African public prosecutor's office accuses the former CEO of inciting billions of dollars in balance sheet manipulation. The Oldenburg regional court also issued an arrest warrant against Jooste in 2023. At the end of 2017, manipulations at the heavily indebted company, which has its roots in Westerstede in Lower Saxony, became known.
The globally active Steinhoff International Holdings is now headquartered in Amsterdam and is controlled from South Africa. Before its collapse, Steinhoff International Holdings was considered one of the largest retailers in the world.
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aeh/dpa