A judge has appointed provisional liquidators to investment firm Mayfair 101 and has banned director James Mawhinney from transferring any assets out of Australia, after the corporate regulator told the court Mawhinney could face criminal charges.
A week after silk Norman O’Bryan dropped his defence against allegations of misconduct in the running of a class action over the failure of Banksia Securities, his junior counsel, Michael Symons, has also conceded defeat, telling a court he too should be struck off the practitioners’ roll.
Law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has warned of a serious risk of industry-wide class actions against the aged care sector over its handling of COVID-19, but if the largest plaintiffs law firms are planning litigation they are keeping their cards close to their chest.
A judge has slugged the Australia Workers’ Union with a $148,100 fine for artificially boosting member numbers in what he said was a “serious departure” from the record-keeping standards required by registered organisations under the Fair Work Act.
The corporate regulator will not take former AMP chair Catherine Brenner to court after investigating her conduct as part of probes that are expected to lead to at least five cases against the wealth management firm before the end of the year.
AMP, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are facing potential class actions over commissions grandfathered by the FoFA reforms and the firms alleged failure to protect client interests.
ASX-listed generic drug maker Mayne Pharma is facing a possible shareholder class action over disclosures related to US price-fixing allegations against the ASX-listed company.
The High Court has denied a special leave application by the former directors of defunct financial advisory Storm Financial, after the Full Federal Court upheld a ruling finding they had breached their duties to eleven vulnerable investors by providing an inappropriate, one-size-fits-all model of investment advice.
A 63-year-old partner of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is suing the accounting giant and CEO Richard Deutsch alleging the firm’s mandatory retirement policy is discriminatory and has cost him almost $4 million.
Barrister Norman O’Bryan has accepted that he should be struck from the roll of legal practitioners after dropping his defence mid-trial against claims of professional misconduct as senior counsel for a class action financed by the late Mark Elliott, but the consequences for the once high-flying silk might not end there.