This Steinhoff scandal just seems to be getting dirtier every day.

According to Moneyweb, the rot goes back much further than anyone suspected.

This was confirmed by the emails sent between CEO Markus Jooste and current and former colleagues Dirk Schreiber and Siegmar Schmidt.

Published this morning in the first series of articles based on leaked documents and emails from inside Steinhoff, it’s all extremely spicy.

You see, the trio conspired to “manipulate the company’s accounts as far back as 2014 and possibly even further”:

The e-mails were exchanged between the three individuals over the period 17-22 August 2014, just as Steinhoff was preparing its accounts for the financial year ending June.

At the time, Markus Jooste was CEO of the group, Dirk Schreiber was, until December 2017, the CFO of Steinhoff Europe, and Siegmar Schmidt, who previously occupied the same role as Schreiber, had already left the company to found Genesis Investment Holdings, one of the companies fingered in the Viceroy report as having been enriched at Steinhoff shareholders’ expense.

What followed was a long discussion about how to get the books to balance and reach a pre-determined outcome. This included how to get transactions past consultants, make things acceptable to auditors, and still maintain a company that delivers on its guidance.

Here’s the gist of it, from Business Insider SA:

After reviewing documents Jooste finds a R3.6 billion hole in the numbers because of bad loans held by furniture retailer JD. He then proposes paying a commission of some R1.9 billion to sell that loan book, so taking it off Steinhoff’s balance sheet, while also landing the company a suspicious €100 million in extra profits.

Raising more questions than answers, you can read the full breakdown of events here. I wonder what the next instalment will bring.

[source:businessinsider&moneyweb]