JOHANNESBURG, April 11 (Reuters) - South Africa's financial
watchdog has cleared of wrongdoing three holders of accounts
that traded Steinhoff shares ahead of a collapse in the
retailer's share price.
The accounts were among scores suspected of insider trading
after Steinhoff's stock turned volatile before it disclosed
massive accounting irregularities in December 2017.
"We found no reason to believe that any of these shares were
traded in contravention of the Financial Markets Act," said
Brandon Topham, divisional executive for investigation and
enforcement at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
In all, around 1.7 billion rand ($122 million) was traded
ahead of Steinhoff's announcement, the start of a downward
spiral which has seen the firm lose 216 billion rand in market
value.
The FSCA has now investigated and cleared 56 accounts over
suspected insider trading of Steinhoff shares. The latest three
cleared traded over 418 million rand in shares, it said.
Investigations into accounts where another 46 million rand
worth of shares were traded are ongoing, the FSCA said, and
updates on those would be issued at their conclusion.
A summary of a PwC investigation into the scandal released
by the company last month shows at least $7.4 bln in fraudulent
transactions, and it has yet to release financial statements for
2018 or 2017.