Accounting fraud

Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s accounting scandal is getting costly for U.S. banks.

The four-month trial of three former Tesco Plc U.K. executives accused of fraud and false accounting over a 250 million-pound ($341 million) profit black hole at the grocer is nearly at an end.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV, the South African retail giant consumed by an accounting scandal, said some of its business units need “significant near-term liquidity” as its chief financial officer stepped down to focus on rescue efforts.

Shares of Steinhoff International Holdings NV rose after the South African retail giant said it will restate financial results going back as far as 2015 amid a probe into accounting irregularities.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV assembled a crisis team of insiders to try to rescue the global retailer amid a crunch meeting with bankers that may determine the company’s future.

It looked like Steinhoff International Holdings NV had reached escape velocity from South Africa’s deepening economic gloom: A furniture retailer emulating Ikea’s model and global ambitions, built by men with their own compelling rags-to-riches stories.

Christo Wiese’s grip on his global furniture retailing empire is slipping after the South African billionaire resigned from the board of troubled Steinhoff International Holdings NV and creditors forced a sale of part of his stake.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV Chairman Christo Wiese, seeking to stabilize the embattled retailer, is negotiating a standstill agreement on a 1.5 billion-euro ($1.8 billion) margin loan under which banks would suspend the sale of stock until next year, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV bonds extended losses after Moody’s Investors Service slashed the credit rating to junk in the wake of an accounting scandal that’s threatening the survival of the global furniture and clothing retailer.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV plunged after its chief executive officer resigned amid accounting irregularities, rocking a company that’s rapidly expanded from its roots in South Africa into a retail empire spanning Australia, Europe and the U.S.