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Property developers Paul Chiodo and Robert Filippini want to stay proceedings by Keystone's receivers over $150 million allegedly laundered through City Built's construction projects, citing "quite likely" criminal charges.
A former director of investment firm Keystone, who is suspected by the corporate regulator of misusing millions in investor funds, has flagged a potential bid to keep his silence in a case by court-appointed receivers.
Court-appointed receivers of investment firm Keystone have won an extension to a freezing order against a Melbourne developer who is suspected of receiving $160 million in investor funds.
A judge has made freezing orders against Melbourne developer City Built and director Robert Filippini, who allegedly received $160 million in investor funds from Keystone Asset Management.
Last week’s judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether “untenable” defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria's legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
Allowing former senior barrister Norman O'Bryan to reopen his defence in the Banksia class action while "avoiding the witness box" was clearly prejudicial, and futile to boot, a judge has said in his reasons for refusing the silk's last-minute application.
Once high-flying barrister Norman O'Bryan might seek to challenge a refusal by the judge overseeing the Banksia class action to revisit his abandoned defence and accept into evidence a document he claims proved he did not secretly hold shares in the funder behind the case.
The litigation funding company controlled by the late solicitor Mark Elliott has told a court of its "remorse and regret" for its misconduct in the Banksia Securities class action, a case that has been described as the "darkest chapter in Victoria's legal history".