Billionaire Christo Wiese opens up about Markus Jooste

Christo Wiese said that after he learned about former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s disgraceful conduct, he ceased to exist for him as a human being.

Wiese recently shared his views about Jooste in a wide-ranging discussion with Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh on the SMWX podcast.

Wiese used to have a close business partnership with Jooste. He injected his own retail powerhouse, Pepkor, into Steinhoff.

As the largest Steinhoff shareholder, Wiese worked closely with Jooste and even considered merging Steinhoff with his golden child, Shoprite.

However, before that could happen, revelations of massive accounting irregularities orchestrated by Jooste surfaced, which ultimately led to Steinhoff’s collapse.

After the December 2017 revelations, the relationship between Wiese and Jooste ended abruptly. Wiese lost an estimated $4 billion in the collapse.

Wiese said Jooste fooled everyone, including very smart auditors and investigators who looked into the matter.

“When the first allegations against Jooste were made in 2015, the Steinhoff board appointed the prominent German forensic investigation firm FGS,” he said.

The firm was mandated to investigate every allegation by the German prosecutors and report its findings to the board.

“They reported to the board and me in my position as chairman that they found no truth in the allegations against Jooste,” Wiese said.

He added that Jooste and other perpetrators of the fraud at Steinhoff managed to hide it for at least a decade.

“This gives you some idea of how cleverly this fraud was constructed and how difficult it was to detect,” Wiese said.

Markus Jooste

Wiese told Mpofu-Walsh that it was a tremendous shock in December 2017 when he learned of Jooste’s actions. “I had to look in the mirror and realise that 50 years of hard work and taking risks going down the tubes,” he said.

He took three decisions – he would not become bitter, mourn the loss of money, and he would always count his blessings.

“Although I lost a large amount of money due to the Steinhoff scandal, it would not affect my lifestyle,” he said.

He explained that, despite his philosophy of never holding grudges, Jooste ceased to exist for him as a human being when it became clear what he had done.

“It sounds pretty harsh, but what he did to people was unimaginable. People suffered greatly. They lost money they could not afford to lose,” he said.

Wiese added that the reports which have been released showed how brazen the fraud was. “It was done without any regard for accountability,” he said.

He also shared a story about asking Jooste whether he had a ‘girlfriend’ while he was married. Wiese previously explained that he takes a dim view of this behaviour.

Instead of confessing to having a mistress, Jooste lied to Wiese and said that he worked far too hard to have a girlfriend.

It later emerged that Jooste did indeed have a mistress and he spent millions to ensure she lived a lavish lifestyle.

Wiese said Jooste essentially ran away after the Steinhoff scandal broke, and that he never apologised for what he had done.

“Jooste told one of his friends that he should visit me and apologise. However, that never happened,” he said.