The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has hit beleaguered mining firm Griffin Coal with criminal charges over its alleged failure to lodge annual financial reports for 2019 and 2020.
A judge has made the “regrettable” call to postpone the trial in a case brought by workers challenging the Victorian government’s COVID-19 health directions until after they expire, blaming the workers for creating a series of “fruitless” delays.
Accounting firms Pitcher Partners and Ernst & Young have blamed the lawyers who advised on Slater & Gordon’s disastrous $1.2 Quindell acquisition for the its massive losses in 2016, saying they failed to point out the “commercial misjudgment” of agreeing to the deal.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will have to hand over a preliminary tranche of documents relating to seven large-scale oil and gas projects it is financing in a lawsuit that will test whether the bank has complied with its stated commitments on climate change.
Logistics company GetSwift says it is considering an appeal of an 859-page judgment which lambasted the company and its directors’ “public relations-driven approach” to announcements on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The court has given the green light to an amended defamation defence by Clive Palmer which accuses Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan of “disgraceful and dishonourable conduct” and abusing his position by hastily and secretly enacting legislation that barred the billionaire mining magnate from suing the state for $30 billion.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has scored a victory in its long-running case against GetSwift, with the Federal Court finding the company and its directors breached the Corporations Act and ASIC Act through their “public relations-driven approach” to announcements on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Accounting firms EY and Pitcher Partners ignored “front page news” that Slater & Gordon’s acquired business Quindell was scrutinised by a UK regulator after reporting a $250 million (£137 million) loss, a court heard on the second day of trial in a class action by the law firm’s shareholders.
A judge said he “gagged” at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s proposed $5 million pecuniary penalty in its case against specialist workplace relations company Employsure over six misleading Google ads.
JPMorgan bigwigs who are key witnesses for the prosecution in its cartel case over ANZ’s botched share placement in 2015 will be questioned by Citibank and Deutsche ahead of trial.