One of two lead applicants in the settled Arasor shareholder class action has been denied leave to be heard over its $1 million personal expenses dispute with litigation funder International Litigation Partners after missing a filing deadline, with a judge calling its handling of the case “shambolic”.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.
A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has pared its criminal cartel case against Country Care Group and two individuals, cutting over 100 charges in an indictment that details two alleged cartel agreements the Australian mobility equipment provider entered into in relation to bids on NSW government tenders.
The lead applicant in a shareholder class action against global engineering firm CIMIC Group has made a bid for indemnity costs, after a last-minute subpoena of three former executives led to the trial being vacated.
The High Court has granted ASIC special leave to appeal a judgment that let a former director of Gold Coast finance company MFS Group partially off the hook for $147.5 million in misappropriated funds, after ASIC argued the High Court should intervene to clarify the scope of the word “officer” under the Corporations Act.
AMP’s financial planning unit has admitted it breached the Corporations Act when at least one of its representatives engaged in so-called insurance policy churning, in a case brought by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission that will now head to a hearing on penalties next month.
US hedge fund Oaktree Capital has placed fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments into receivership, following a tumultuous period marked by the loss of senior executives and three shareholder class action investigations amid concerns about the company’s method for valuing its assets under management.
Australian distribution firm Halifax Vogel has struck back at a class action alleging it violated consumer laws with its representations regarding the quality of Alucobond cladding, denying that the cladding puts buildings and their occupants at risk of harm or death from fire.
Former IOOF chairman George Venardos will be allowed to object to incriminating evidence and discovery in proceedings brought by APRA, after a court found there was a real and appreciable risk that ASIC could also bring a civil case against him.