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The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (Irba) said this week that, as part of its probe into the role played by Deloitte SA in the auditing of Steinhoff’s financial statements, it would rely on the publication of the furniture retailer’s restated financials.
Earlier this month, a forensic probe into the affairs of Steinhoff by auditor PwC uncovered €6.5 billion (R106 billion) worth of irregular transactions with eight firms from 2009 to 2017.
The deals, orchestrated over several years, enabled Steinhoff to artificially boost profits, puff up property values and inflate the amount of cash it held, the probe found.
Irba, which regulates more than 4 000 registered auditors, said it “noted with concern the allegations contained in the PwC report regarding the nature and extent of the corporate fraud allegedly perpetrated by a small of group of executives and related parties, potential accounting irregularities and potential noncompliance with laws and regulations”.
Bernard Agulhas, the CEO of Irba, said the watchdog’s probe, which began in December 2017, was into Deloitte SA, which had signed off on the group consolidated financial statements up to 2015.
“We have received the audit files for 2014, 2015 and 2016,” Agulhas said.
“Being able to conclude our investigation into the audits is reliant on the publication of the restated figures for the 2015 and 2016 financial years.”
The SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) said two its members – former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste and the beleaguered company’s former chief financial officer, Ben la Grange – had been named during a parliamentary hearing this week among eight implicated individuals in the Steinhoff scandal.
“Considering that more chartered accountants, and therefore Saica members, could be implicated in the Steinhoff matter, Saica will request relevant details from Steinhoff in order to provide input into the institute’s own investigative and disciplinary procedures,” Saica said.
Siegmar Schmidt, a former Steinhoff Europe director; Dirk Schreiber, Steinhoff’s ex-head of finance in Europe; George Alan Evans, a director of Geneva-based Campion Capital SA; Stephan Grobler, Steinhoff’s ex-company secretary; and Davide Romano and Jean-Noel Pasquier, both of whom are also listed as being part of Campion Capital, were also named in Parliament this week.
La Grange told Bloomberg that he was working with authorities as they investigated dodgy transactions that had brought the global retailer to the brink of collapse.
