Personal lender ClearLoans and its parent company have agreed to pay penalties of just over $6 million to settle the first COVID-19 related case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
A judge has grilled the former general counsel of defunct logistics company GetSwift about why he did not confront the company’s directors for “bullying” other executives when they raised concerns about alleged continuous disclosure breaches.
Melbourne stockbroker Bradley Grimm has pleaded guilty to charges of dishonesty following an investigation alleging Grimm — whose wife is a former ASIC employee — fleeced funds from clients.
Two home finance companies and their father-son directors have been hit with $150,000 in penalties after a judge found they failed to cooperate with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority in an ASIC enforcement action and subjected AFCA staff to “inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour.”
Wood-fibre processor and exporter Midway Limited has been hit with a $33,000 penalty after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleged it failed to disclose a revenue downturn to shareholders.
ASIC commissioner Sean Hughes will step down next month after taking a role with investment manager Vanguard – which paid a $40,000 fine to the corporate watchdog just last month.
Hitting back at ASIC’s claims it misled investors and breached disclosure rules, technology company Nuix says it had no knowledge it was failing to meet its FY21 forecast and didn’t need to disclose to investors draft documents showing missed internal targets.
A judge has vacated an upcoming trial in shareholder class actions against former Quintis director Frank Wilson and Ernst & Young, after learning judgment in similar ASIC proceedings against Wilson will not be delivered before the class action hearing kicks off.
Retail giant Harvey Norman and consumer credit provider Latitude Finance have hit back at ASIC claims that they ran misleading ads for interest-free finance, saying reasonable consumers would have known additional conditions were laid out in the ads’ fine print.
A former director of Spaceship Capital Limited has succeeded in overturning a banning order imposed by ASIC, with a tribunal finding he may have been kept in the dark about the software bug that led to the ban.