A judge has given the greenlight to AUSTRAC’s $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws, the biggest regulatory fine ever paid by an Australian company.
The Australian unit of French investment bank Société Générale must pay a $30,000 penalty after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching client money handling rules.
Former celebrity advisor and banking royal commission witness Sam Henderson has avoided jail time and been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to dishonesty and defective disclosure offences for falsely telling clients he had completed a Master of Commerce degree.
A judge has sided in part with QBE Insurance and pared back a class action over allegedly worthless add-on insurance sold by ANZ to credit card and personal loan customers.
A judge has slapped National Australia Bank with a $15 million penalty over its scandal-ridden home loan introducer program but slammed ASIC’s investigation into the program, saying there was no “real regulatory desire to pursue a thorough investigation as to what in truth occurred”.
Fintech Flexigroup has appealed rival Zip Co’s successful opposition to its ‘No Interest Ever!’ trade mark, which an IP Australia delegate found was a laudatory phrase incapable of distinguishing the goods of a single trader.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.
The judge overseeing a class action against Westpac over superannuation fees has criticised costly discovery processes that produce a “tsunami of material”, most of which is never used at trial.
Financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC will not take legal action against Afterpay over its compliance with anti-money laundering laws, following an external auditor’s report that found the buy now, pay later provider had received “incorrect” legal advice from several top-tier law firms about its compliance program.
The director of the besieged Mayfair investment group will submit a new noteholder proposal to the court in an effort to stave off the winding up of M101 Nominees and salvage his multi-million dollar Dunk Island and Mission Beach investments.