Steinhoff executive jailed in Germany

A former business associate of the late Steinhoff boss Markus Jooste has been sentenced to six years in jail in Germany on 20 counts of tax evasion. The sentence, handed down on Monday, is the longest prison term linked to the long-running Steinhoff fraud saga to date. Siegmar Schmidt was also ordered to pay a fine of 250 000 euros, a spokesperson for the Oldenburg Regional Court confirmed to Fin24. Schmidt, a German national, is one of the highest-profile Steinhoff executives left facing legal consequences following Jooste's death by suicide in March. Schmidt headed up one of Steinhoff’s key European divisions, Steinhoff Europe Group Services, between 2003 and 2011. In testimony last year in a separate trial, Schmidt implicated Jooste in wrongdoing, saying the Steinhoff CEO had created a ‘climate of fear’ at the retailer, where employees dared not speak out. Court spokesperson Torben Tölle said two years of Schmidt's prison sentence are considered served due to the ‘unreasonably’ long duration of the proceedings. Schmidt has already been convicted in two other cases of aiding and abetting false accounting and private tax evasion linked to Steinhoff. The verdict against Schmidt brings a series of Steinhoff trials to a close in Germany. In SA, by contrast, criminal proceedings are just beginning. Steinhoff's former legal head and longtime company secretary, Stéhan Grobler, is expected to appear in court again in late June. He is out on $8 000 bail. He has been charged with racketeering, fraud, manipulation of financial statements, and failure to report fraudulent activities.

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