A former senior audit executive linked to the massive accounting scandal at Steinhoff International has been sentenced to prison after admitting he failed to report suspicious activities that contributed to the company’s inflated financial statements.

The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court sentenced Hein Odendaal (67), the former Group Audit Executive at Steinhoff at Work, to four years’ direct imprisonment or a fine of R2 million.

In addition, Odendaal received a two-year prison sentence wholly suspended for five years on condition that he is not convicted again of contravening section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act during that period. The court also ordered that he undergo one year of correctional supervision in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977.

Odendaal was convicted after entering into a plea and sentence agreement with the State in terms of section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Odendaal admitted that in his role as Group Audit Executive, he should have suspected fraudulent conduct within the Steinhoff group but failed to report it to the police as required by law.

The case relates to a fraudulent scheme dating back to November 2016. The NPA said Iwan Peter Schelbert, acting on instructions from former chief financial officer Andries Benjamin La Grange, generated a fraudulent invoice to TG Sources SARL, a company based in Martigny, Switzerland.

Following the creation of the invoice, Stephanus Johannes Grobler and others allegedly produced supporting documentation and facilitated payments to create the impression that the transaction between Steinhoff at Work and TG Sources SARL was legitimate.

The scheme resulted in the inflation of Steinhoff’s financial statements by more than R376 million.

The NPA said Odendaal’s conviction marks the fourth secured in the sprawling Steinhoff fraud investigation, one of the largest corporate scandals in South Africa’s history.

The investigation has involved the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), commonly known as the Hawks, working with prosecutors and forensic experts to unravel the complex financial dealings behind the collapse of the retail giant.

National Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Andy Mothibi said the outcome demonstrates the NPA’s commitment to prosecuting corporate crime.

“These outcomes should demonstrate to the public that the NPA will continue to prosecute all cases whether in the public or private sector without fear, favour or prejudice,” Mothibi said.

The NPA also stressed that plea agreements should not be interpreted as reducing the seriousness of corporate crime.

“It must be noted that the NPA takes these kinds of cases seriously. Each case is treated on its merits and plea bargains do not militate against the seriousness of these offences,” the authority said.

However, the sentence has sparked anger and frustration among some South Africans on social media, with many arguing that the punishment is too lenient given the scale of the financial scandal and the impact on investors and pension funds.

One user on the social media platform X wrote: “Imagine a minister from the ANC getting such soft landing. R2 million fine for ill-gotten millions. It would have been better if they sentenced him to clean Limpopo schools pit toilets every day for five years.”

Another user commented: “Compared to how much he gained, that sentence is a spit in the face of poor pensioners.”

Meanwhile, the case against Grobler, one of the remaining accused, has been postponed to 14 May 2026 for further court proceedings.

The Steinhoff accounting scandal erupted in December 2017 when the company disclosed major accounting irregularities that wiped billions of rand off its market value and triggered investigations in several countries.

The fallout led to the resignation of senior executives and multiple civil and criminal investigations into alleged accounting fraud and financial misrepresentation within the group. Authorities in South Africa have since been pursuing several individuals linked to the scheme as part of ongoing efforts to hold those responsible for one of the country’s biggest corporate scandals accountable.