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Bloomberg
Steinhoff International Holdings NV rejected allegations of dishonesty made in a Manager-Magazin report that Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste is among employees being investigated by German prosecutors in a 2015 case linked to possible accounting fraud.
Substantial information in the article is “wrong or misleading,†the South African furniture and clothing retailer said. Referring to the start of the 2015 probe, Steinhoff said it appointed legal and external audit firms in Germany to investigate the matter and they concluded that “no evidence exists†that the company broke the country’s commercial laws, it said.
The report in Manager-Magazin relates to a case that began just before Steinhoff moved its primary listing to Frankfurt from Johannesburg in December 2015. In November of that year, German authorities searched Steinhoff offices in the town of Westerstede and visited private homes as part of an investigation by prosecutors in the town of Oldenburg into four current and former managers.
Steinhoff said at the time it was “fully committed†to support the probe and reiterated it has “engaged constructively†with the authorities. “No further investigations have been initiated nor any searches conducted as alleged in the article,†the company said.
It is involved in ongoing civil litigation and the outcome “should result in monetary remedy to be paid by the group,†Steinhoff said. “The payment of any such monetary remedy would not have a material adverse effect on the trading and/or financial condition.â€