COSATU pleased with arrest in Steinhoff case
27 June 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is pleased that persons accused of looting workers’ pension funds’ investments at Steinhoff are finally being brought to book after years of not being held liable for their crimes.
Yesterday Steinhoff’s former chief financial officer, Ben la Grange, appeared in court after he was arrested. La Grange appeared in the Pretoria Special Commercial Crimes Court and was charged with racketeering, fraud, corruption and contravening the Financial Markets Act in relation to the Steinhoff case. He was released on bail of R150 000.
Stéhan Grobler, former Steinhoff head of legal, appeared alongside La Grange. Grobler first appeared in the same court in March, a day after Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste committed suicide, leaving him to stand in the dock alone.
In late 2018 workers’ pensions lost billions of Rands in the value due to Steinhoff’s accounting scandal. The Government Employees Pension Fund, for instance, had invested in the region of R4.3 billion in Steinhoff, but the investment turned out to be worthless because the company had falsified its market value via creative accounting methods.