Ben la Grange was Steinhoff’s CFO under Markus Jooste. (Jaco Marais/Netwerk24)
- Steinhoff’s former chief financial officer, Ben la Grange, has been arrested.
- La Grange appeared in court in Pretoria before being released on R150 000 bail.
- The 49-year-old for years worked closely with Steinhoff’s late CEO Markus Jooste.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Steinhoff’s former chief financial officer, Ben la Grange, has been arrested and appeared in court where he was granted R150 000 bail.
The 49-year-old appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court following his arrest on Wednesday morning.
La Grange, who worked closely with Steinhoff’s late CEO Markus Jooste, has been charged with two counts of racketeering, five counts of fraud, one count of corruption and three counts of the contravention of the Financial Markets Act in relation to the state’s ongoing Steinhoff investigation.
La Grange appeared in court alongside his co-accused, Steinhoff’s former legal head Stéhan Grobler, who handed himself over to the Hawks in late March.
Grobler, who is also out of R150 000 bail, was arrested a day after his former boss Markus Jooste died by suicide in Hermanus.
He was meant to stand trial with Jooste in a case into which South African authorities had poured resources for years. But Jooste’s abrupt death meant that Grobler initially appeared alone in the dock in March.
The 74-year-old, who worked at Steinhoff between 1999 and 2018, has vowed to clear his name.
“I was and remain confident that I will be able to clear the charges levelled against me. I have provided my full cooperation to the investigation wherever it has been required of me,” he said at his first court appearance in March.
Stéhan Grobler in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria in March (William Brederode/News24)
La Grange and Grobler are the sole South African Steinhoff executives to face charges over the years-long accounting fraud that brought what was once one of South Africa’s largest and most successful public companies to its knees.
They are set to again appear again in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 4 October.
Steinhoff’s assets, liabilities, and contracts were transferred to a new unlisted company called Ibex last year to prevent it from being broken up in what company bosses feared would be a messy and drawn-out liquidation.
The Steinhoff name then ceased to exist as a company when the empty shell of its holding company, devoid of all assets, was liquidated. In return, its creditors agreed to extend the repayment date of its €10.2 billion (R200 billion) debt burden to 2026.
