Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is facing claims of professional negligence by insolvent tertiary education provider Cornerstone for allegedly assisting the company’s former director in overstating the company’s revenue and unlawfully extinguishing his debt.
A judge won’t make HWL Ebsworth managing partner Juan Martinez the representative defendant in a former partner’s $4.4 million lawsuit against the firm, saying Martinez’ interests and those of the other partners could diverge.
The managing partner of HWL Ebsworth, who has been targeted in a lawsuit by a former equity partner over the law firm’s aborted IPO, is resisting efforts to be named as representative defendant in the case.
National law firm HWL Ebsworth expelled a former equity partner ahead of its failed initial public offering specifically so he would not participate in the IPO and “others would benefit to a greater extent”, a court has heard.
HWL Ebsworth has been hit with a second lawsuit filed over its failed IPO, with a former equity partner accusing the law firm of excluding him from the profits of the IPO and expelling him because he did not go along with the exclusion.
A judge has questioned fintech company Squirrel Super’s defence in ASIC’s case alleging it made false and misleading statements about returns on property investments, saying it “looked like a bit of a stretch” at first glance.
The director of a defunct HR company has lost his bid to avoid paying a $384,000 tax bill after hundreds of thousands of dollars were sent to the tax office via the wrong EFT number and used to repay other debts the company owed.