Ex-Steinhoff CFO Ben La Grange fined R12m, disqualified by JSE due to ‘dodgy’ invoice

The latest information surrounding Steinhoff is that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has banned the company’s former Chief Financial Officer, Ben La Grange.

La Grange has been disqualified from filling the role of a company director in a JSE-listed company for a decade and issued him with a fine of R2 million.

The JSE said La Grange failed to fulfill his duties, responsibilities with due care and skill – he is also found to have acted fictitiously.

The former CFO served at Steinhoff under the group’s former head Markus Jooste, he is also found guilty of processing a handwritten invoice for €23.5 million (about R376 million at the time) handed to him by Jooste in 2016 – the JSE found was fictitious. 

“There was no actual transaction nor any legitimate commercial reason that supported the information or calculations contained in the handwritten document,” the JSE said. 

News24 has it that La Grange explained he was not aware at the time that the invoice was bogus, and should have tried harder to check if it was genuine. 

“La Grange ought to have known, that due to the numerous accounting irregularities, Steinhoff’s previously published financial information failed to comply with International Financial Reporting Standards and was incorrect, false, and misleading in material respects,” said the JSE. 

“Investigation into the conduct of other individuals that presided at the company during the periods in question and who were bound by the listings requirements is ongoing.”

Moreover, it has come to the attention of BusinessTech Africa that the fine may have been bigger had La Grange not been “unwavering” in his cooperation with the JSE’s probe, including providing disclosures that assisted the JSE in its investigation against Steinhoff.

Main Image: Ben La Grange/Bloomberg