A 79-year-old man pleaded guilty to insider trading at Steinhoff. Picture: Henk Kruger/Indepedent Media
A 79-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to insider trading at Steinhoff, received a suspended sentence on Thursday.
Gehardus Burger was arrested early on Thursday by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (known as the Hawks) following a warrant for his arrest.
Burger appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty on all three charges of the Contravention of the Financial Markets Act (insider trading).
Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said Burger was sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended for five years on condition that he does not commit the same crime in that period.
“The court also ordered that the monies accrued from the sale of the shares be forfeited to the State.”
Burger’s arrest emanates from an ongoing investigation into Steinhoff, where in November 2017, the then Chief Executive Officer, the late Markus Jooste, is said to have shared information on the selling of Steinhoff shares before they fell.
The Hawks said it was alleged that Burger received a tip off from Jooste in order to sell his shares before their price dropped due to irregularities in the Steinhoff financial statements.
It is further alleged that in 2017, the suspect instructed that over 39,000 of Steinhoff shares be sold.
Another person arrested in connection with inside trading is Stephanus Johannes Grobler.
Grobler who was arrested in March this year faces charges of fraud, a pattern of racketeering activities and contravention of Financial Markets Act against Steinhoff International Holdings.
He is due back in court next month.
Jooste died in March this year allegedly by suicide. An inquest docket has been opened.
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