A judge has extended by a week a freezing order over the assets of ISignthis CEO John Karantzis in a dispute with the Australian Taxation Office over a $10.7M alleged tax debt, but a bid to extend the scope of the order to include shares in a Cyprus-based company launched by the fintech businessman has failed for now.
Last week’s judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether “untenable” defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.
Franchise giant Retail Food Group has been hit with a class action on behalf of current and former franchisees of the company’s Michel’s Patisserie brand.
The solicitor behind the successful challenge to the claim for ill-gotten spoils by the Banksia Securities class action legal team says he draws little comfort from the conclusion by the judge who strongly condemned the misconduct that the legal system is capable of regulating itself. More needs to be done to root out the systemic causes of the arrogance on display in the case, he says.
The competition regulator has filed court action seeking an injunction to stop Virtus Health from completing the purchase of rival Adora Fertility on Friday while a merger review is still in progress.
Five enforcement officers of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be cross-examined by lawyers for banks facing price fixing charges over their conduct following ANZ’s $2.5 billion capital raising six years ago.
Struggling mining firm Griffin Coal has been ordered to pay $5.1 million to liquidators of a collapsed mining services company after a judge found it had breached a contractual term not to trade while insolvent.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
Priceline faces a class action by a group of franchisees accusing the pharmacy giant of exercising an “overly prescriptive level of control” that limits their profitability.