The Australian liquidator of Lehman Brothers has filed a lawsuit seeking $40 million from Fitch Ratings for assigning too-rosy ratings to toxic financial products sold by the bank, following the discovery of a hidden table in Fitch’s rating model by the lawyers leading a now-settled class action against the accounting firm.
Deloitte chairman Tom Imbresi has defended a move by a firm partner to make off with the audit file of collapsed construction company Hastie after a court ordered it be produced to the applicant in a class action against the accounting giant.
Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
Activist US short seller Bonitas Research is refusing to participate in legal action brought in Australia by Rural Funds Group, as it continues to press allegations of fraud, which sent the agricultural fund manager’s share price plummeting.
Ernst & Young, which is facing a lawsuit brought by the receiver of a fund overseen by failed financial services firm LM Investment Management, has lost its bid to file a claim for damages against LMIM, with a judge saying the auditor’s case was “flawed” and “counterintuitive”.
A former Ernst & Young principal jailed for at least nine years for his role in a $135 million tax fraud has lost a challenge to two NSW Supreme Court orders barring access to $150 million worth of assets.
Activist US short seller Bonitas Research has welcomed legal action filed against it by agricultural fund manager Rural Funds Group as a chance for “investors to know the truth”, while also doubling down on the accusations of fraud at the centre of the case that sent the group’s share price plummeting.
The plaintiffs in one of two shareholder class actions brought against troubled sandalwood producer Quintis have complained about potential delays that could result from the “overly complicated loss theory” being advanced in a parallel class action.
Agricultural fund manager Rural Funds Group has briefed a top-tier law firm to bring “unprecedented” legal action against US company Bonitas Research, after the activist short seller accused the group of fraud and sent its share price plummeting.
A judge has ordered ASIC and defence shipbuilder Austal to try to narrow the scope of documents at the centre of the regulator’s case challenging the company’s claims of legal professional privilege.