Steinhoff accused Burger handed suspended sentence after guilty plea
A third suspect in the ongoing Steinhoff case, Gerhardus Burger, has pleaded guilty to insider trading after selling over 39,000 Steinhoff shares before the company's collapse.
Burger appeared before the Pretoria Specialised Crimes Court on Thursday, following his arrest by the Hawks on the same day.
Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale says Burger pleaded guilty to all three charges of the Contravention of the Financial Markets Act (insider trading).
"He 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 money secured from the sale of the shares be forfeited to the state".
In June, the retail giant's chief financial officer Ben la Grange was granted R150,000 bail.
La Grange (49) appeared briefly in the Pretoria Specialised Crimes Court alongside another accused in the matter, Stéhan Grobler, who was arrested in March this year.
At the time, Mogale said La Grange faced two counts of racketeering in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, five counts of fraud, and one count of corruption.
He also faces three counts of the contravention of Financial Markets Act in relation to the ongoing Steinhoff investigation.
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.
Jooste reportedly shot himself at his Hermanus home in March this year.
His death came a day after he was slapped with a R475 million ($25.2 million) fine by the country's financial market watchdog Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FCSA).
He pleaded guilty on all three charges of the Contravention of the Financial Markets Act (insider trading).
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