The former chief executive of Steinhoff, Markus Jooste. Picture: Armand Hough/ Independent Newspapers.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has seized a substantial amount from the late Markus Jooste’s rumoured girlfriend’s bank accounts.
In a general notice of a government gazette, issued by Fundi Tshazibana, the Deputy Governor of the Prudential Cluster of the SARB, the funds and property under the name of Berdine Odendaal, who is Jooste's rumoured former romantic partner will be seized.
The death of the 63-year-old Markus Jooste was confirmed by the police last month following his alleged suicide a day after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) imposed a R475 million administrative fine on him for accounting irregularities at Steinhoff.
Tshazibana stated, “By virtue of the functions, powers and/or duties vested in me, in my capacity as the Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, in terms of the delegation and assignment of the functions, powers and/or duties referred, I hereby give notice of a decision to forfeit to the State the following money and/or goods and I hereby declare and order forfeit to the State the following money and/or goods.”
SARB would be seizing the following:
This comes after Odendaal last week escalated her bid to access heaps of money frozen by SARB.
Odendaal had applied for leave to appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal after already losing two court bids. She wanted the court to compel SARB to continue paying her R150 000 a month for living expenses from her blocked accounts.
The SARB initially attached four bank accounts, including a Nedbank account belonging to Odendaal, back in May 2021. The central bank raised some suspicion about a R60 million loan she had received from a horse racing company.
SARB claimed there was an exchange control contravention when the funds were wired from abroad from Mayfair Speculators, a company associated with the disgraced former CEO of Steinhoff, Jooste.
Jooste was instrumental in what became known as the “Steinhoff Heist” following his fraudulent activities which cost South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation close to R200 billion of investments.
Steinhoff International was liquidated last year after the accounting scandal brought it to its knees.
In 2017, news broke of the country’s biggest corporate fraud amounting to €6.5bn (R134bn), which was explained as an accounting error.
The fraud also cost the Public Investment Corporation close to R21bn of investments.
The share price of Steinhoff then fell exponentially.
The Steinhoff crash wiped billions off the JSE, the net worth of tycoon Christo Wiese and the pension funds of ordinary South Africans.
The disgraced Jooste, at the time of his death, was under investigation by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in a criminal case, in which he faced penalties of up to R15 million, or 10 years’ imprisonment, or both.
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