JOHANNESBURG - Markus Jooste, the former head of Steinhoff, will get his first day in court in Germany on Tuesday.
Jooste faces five counts of accounting fraud for fictitious transactions that were made to either hide losses or reflect bogus profits.
This relates to irregularities that were picked up in 2015 with the Steinhoff books, which contravenes German commercial law.
The case to be heard in the Oldenburg district court is the first criminal proceedings against him.
Investors lost billions in 2017 when Steinhoff's share price plummeted after irregularities surfaced.