https://newsletter.en.creamermedia.com
Financial
Financial
financial

Accused Tongaat execs in court over R3.5bn fraud charges

15th September 2022

By: News24Wire

  

Font size: - +

Former executives of struggling sugar producer Tongaat Hulett made their first appearance in the Durban High Court on Thursday, facing charges related to fraud amounting to about R3.5-billion.

Former CEO Peter Staude and former CFO Murray Hector Munro are among the accused that appeared, with the case adjourned to 17 February 2023 for a pre-trial conference. The accused will remain out on bail.

The over 150-year-old sugar producer, which traces its roots to the 1850s and is one of KwaZulu-Natal's biggest employers, asked the JSE to suspend trade in its shares in June 2019 after an investigation flagged accounting practices that meant previous financial results could not be relied on.

A PwC investigation identified 10 executives, including Staude, who were allegedly involved in profit inflation. It concluded that there was a culture of deference within Tongaat that led to employees not questioning accounting practices.

The PwC investigation identified practices that inflated profits, as well as practices that inflated the value of assets, including its sugar cane, and the company has been forced to restate previous financial results, including for the six months to end-September 2018. That restatement resulted in total assets decreasing by about R12-billion, or just over a third.

Those appearing on Thursday also include former Tongaat directors Michael Edward Deighton, Rory Edward Wilkinson, finance executive Samantha Shukla, legal executive Kamasagrie Singh, and auditor Gavin Dykes Kruger from Deloitte and Touche, the National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement.

Edited by News24Wire

Comments

 

Showroom

Schauenburg SmartMine IoT
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT

SmartMine IoT has been developed with the mining industry in mind, to provides our customers with powerful business intelligence and data modelling...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa (Pty) Ltd
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa (Pty) Ltd

Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa is sole distributors for Goodwin electrically driven, submersible, abrasion resistance slurry pumps.

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Magazine round up | 13 December 2024
Magazine round up | 13 December 2024
13th December 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.102 0.203s - 171pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now