A judge has set aside a tribunal’s decision not to disqualify a SMSF auditor for breaching independence rules, finding the tribunal had failed to consider general deterrence.
A judge has approved a $33 million settlement in a class action against vocational education provider Box Hill Institute, but taken the ax to a law firm’s proposed 18.25 per cent loading on its fees, saying courts shouldn’t approve uplifts for run of the mill legal work.
A judge has hit Alkaloids of Australia with a nearly $2 million penalty for engaging in cartel conduct and sentenced its former export manager to a term of imprisonment for his involvement in fixing prices for a key chemical in anti-spasmodic drug Buscopan.
A judge has approved a $1 million penalty against Queensland crane company NQ Cranes for engaging in a conspiracy with a multinational rival to divide the Brisbane and Newcastle markets.
In one of the year’s biggest class action settlements, PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a representative action over a 2009 oil spill that affected 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers.
The law firm that filed a second securities class action against failed Blue Sky Alternative Investments and auditor EY has moved swiftly to stay a competing class action brought three months ago.
Avant Insurance has lost its bid to challenge a ruling which put it on the hook for indemnifying a plastic surgeon in class action proceedings over allegedly botched breast augmentations at a defunct NSW clinic.
The High Court has agreed to hear prosecutors’ appeal of a “manifestly inadequate” $1.35 million penalty against an engineering firm for bribing foreign officials in Vietnam to secure $10 million in infrastructure contracts.
The High Court has turned down the appeal of the former Blue Star Helium CEO who was hit with a $40,000 penalty and four-year ban after the company failed to disclose to shareholders the identity of the buyer behind a botched sale of Texas oil assets.
A former Tesla Motors Australia director has pleaded guilty to two counts of insider trading for acquiring shares in Piedmont Lithium based on insider information he had about an in-principle agreement the mining company had to supply lithium to Tesla.