Markus Jooste, the former chief executive officer of scandal-ridden retailer Steinhoff International Holdings NV who died Thursday, had been told to hand himself over to South African police, according to legal authorities.
The National Prosecuting Authority and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation secured arrest warrants for the lead suspects involved in the Steinhoff collapse, according to a joint statement by the agencies on Friday.
Steinhoff's former legal head, Stehan Grobler, presented himself at the Pretoria, South Africa, central police station before appearing in the city's specialized commercial crimes court Friday morning. A call to Grobler's mobile phone went straight to voicemail and he didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jooste allegedly
"The exit routes were secured before the message of securing their attendance in court was shared with the defense to ensure that none of the suspects leave the borders," the statement said.
Jooste's criminal case will be dropped because of the 63-year-old's alleged suicide, but civil claims and a 475 million rand ($25 million) fine levied against him by the financial regulator for making and publishing false, misleading or deceptive statements about the company may still be pursued.
"The FSCA is legally entitled to recover the penalty from the estate of the late Mr Jooste," the regulator said in a separate statement. "Whether the authority will claim against the estate will be decided at the appropriate time, taking into account all the relevant circumstances."
Steinhoff, the former owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S., had a dramatic share-price collapse after auditors refused to sign off on its financials in late 2017 and Jooste resigned. That led to the start of police and regulatory investigations in both Europe and South Africa.
A forensic probe by auditor PwC uncovered €6.5 billion ($7 billion) of irregular transactions with eight firms over eight years. Jooste was charged in Germany on allegations that he was the architect of the accounting scandal, which he denied.
