Commenting on the matter, FSCA Commissioner Mr Unathi Kamlana had this to say, “Of particular importance to the FSCA, as a regulatory authority responsible for the efficiency and integrity of financial markets is that these contraventions meant that for the affected periods, the financial statements which were published failed to provide useful information to investors, lenders and other creditors and thereby concealing the true financial position of the respective companies. This conduct essentially meant that investors based their assessments of Steinhoff’s financial prospects on false, incomplete and misleading information, which resulted in material destruction of value, estimated to run in the hundreds of billions of rands in losses. Including investment losses by various pension funds.”