The Federal Court has ordered the winding up of Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac and French investment bank Societe Generale of a $263 million fraud, as details of the company’s jetsetting director’s planned return to Australia from Europe remain murky.
The director of Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac and Societe Generale of a $263 million fraud, is in Europe and will return to Australia over the weekend, although he has refused to tell his lawyer his exact location, a court has heard.
Law firm HWL Ebsworth says it has avoided any negative financial impact from its connection with Sydney financial firm Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac of a $263 million fraud.
Chinese lender Aoyin wants to join Baker McKenzie to its claims against PwC over a failed bid to launch the first Chinese bank incorporated in Australia, after advice documents from the law firm were uncovered in a last-minute privilege fight.
The federal government has cut the budget for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission by $62.7 million in tandem with the regulator’s corporate registry being shifted to the ATO, but a legal expert told Lawyerly the cut could also signal a movement away from the “why not litigate” approach adopted in the wake of the banking royal commission.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has won access to communications between a Chinese lender and its lawyers at Baker McKenzie in a legal stoush over a failed bid to launch the first Chinese bank incorporated in Australia.
The prudential regulator has reduced a requirement that Allianz Australia hold an extra $250 million in capital by $100 million, noting steps the insurer had taken to improve its risk management. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority imposed the additional capital requirement on the insurer’s Australian unit in August last year, due to issues raised in…
Westpac is still locked in mediation with AUSTRAC over allegations that it committed over 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, with the bank’s hopes of moving to a penalty hearing in the early part of the year fading.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will continue its enforcement activities amid the spread of the coronavirus but will prioritise cracking down on behaviour that threatens “immediate consumer harm”.
Westpac has been hit with another class action over alleged anti-money laundering breaches, teeing up a high-stakes beauty parade over which firm will lead the class action against the bank.