A legal battle in the Federal Court between Freedom Foods and Blue Diamond Growers over an almond milk licensing deal has been stayed so the parties can arbitrate their dispute in California, where the Australian Consumer Law will apply.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission presented its misleading and deceptive conduct case against companies in the Mayfair Group in an undefended trial on Monday, while the beleaguered investment group’s director watched the online proceedings as a muted observer.
A judge has ordered the winding up of M101 Nominees, the issuer of $67 million in notes promoted by James Mawhinney’s failed Mayfair 101, which is alleged to owe investors over $211 million.
A judge has vacated a scheduled mediation in ASIC’s misleading and deceptive conduct case against three companies in the beleaguered Mayfair Group after they failed to procure legal representation despite assurances that lawyers would be engaged promptly.
Embattled Mayfair Group director James Mawhinney is under pressure to secure legal representation to defend his companies against a misleading and deceptive conduct case brought by ASIC, but the Big Six firm he has in mind has yet to commit.
Murray Goulburn’s former managing director Gary Helou and chief financial officer Brad Hingle have been disqualified from heading up companies after they were found to have breached the Corporations Act for their role in the milk supplier’s repeated failure to disclose an expected material decrease in the milk supplier’s earnings guidance for 2016.
The corporate regulator is pushing for a three-year director ban against former Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou and a two-year disqualification order against the dairy cooperative’s former chief financial officer over misleading representations about farmgate milk prices five years ago.
James Mawhinney, director of the besieged Mayfair Group, has lost his bid to slow down two proceedings filed by ASIC which he claims will have a “catastrophic” effect on his business, staff and investors.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.
The director of the besieged Mayfair investment group will submit a new noteholder proposal to the court in an effort to stave off the winding up of M101 Nominees and salvage his multi-million dollar Dunk Island and Mission Beach investments.