A judge has ordered the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to file a replacement indictment to address defects in the document at the centre of its criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement in August 2015.
JPMorgan is fighting to keep details of failed settlement talks with ASIC under wraps in criminal cartel proceedings over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, as ANZ seeks to uncover whether the corporate regulator made a deal with the investment bank ahead of the cartel case being filed.
For the lawyers conducting the committal hearings in the criminal cartel case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion equity raising, the Sydney Downing Centre courtroom was already too close for comfort.
An ACCC investigator has come under fire from ANZ as the bank seeks to shoot holes in the criminal cartel action against it, with counsel for the bank accusing the regulator of “infecting” witness statements and erasing testimony that weakened its case.
A key officer from the ACCC involved in interviewing JPMorgan bankers during a cartel investigation that led to criminal charges against ANZ and two investment banks has denied allegations that he acted improperly during the investigation.
A sideshow evidentiary dispute in a committal hearing in a landmark criminal cartel case against ANZ and two investment banks has drawn to a close, but not before testing the patience of a magistrate, who warned her ruling would be far from a “Rolls Royce decision”.
JPMorgan has taken ANZ to task for its “heroic endeavours to create an air of suspicion” around the conduct of ASIC and the ACCC prior to the filing of a landmark criminal cartel case, slamming the allegations as purely speculative.
ANZ is seeking information on whether the ACCC put pressure on ASIC to not pursue proceedings against JP Morgan over a $2.5 billion share placement that is at the centre of a closely watched criminal cartel case, saying the matter raised a “serious question” about potential abuse of power by the regulators.
The approval of a settlement between the liquidators of failed fund manager Equititrust and auditor KPMG has been postponed to allow time to notify creditors and unitholders that they won’t see a cent, an outcome the judge called “a long way from litigation in any traditional sense”.