A committal hearing in the ANZ cartel case may run a further nine days next year due to ongoing arguments about subpoenas and privilege, which have derailed five planned days of cross-examination of key witnesses and led a Local Court Magistrate to proclaim she was “awful close” to ending her life.
The banks and executives facing criminal charges over alleged cartel conduct related to ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement in 2015 will fight to widen their cross-examination of key ACCC witnesses after new information was brought to light in late submissions by the regulator.
A key witness from JPMorgan previously contested claims by the ACCC that a key component of an alleged cartel arrangement between four major banks around a $2.5 billion institutional share placement by ANZ was actually an ‘agreement,’ as opposed to a series of independent decisions, a court has heard.
Two key witnesses from JPMorgan have been grilled by lawyers for three major investments banks named in a high-stakes criminal cartel case as the banks seek to cast doubt on how the ACCC gathered evidence during its almost two-year cartel investigation.
An investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come under fire by the banks and directors targeted in a criminal case over alleged cartel conduct that claim the regulator “contaminated” key evidence and improperly used material supplied by ASIC.
The plaintiffs firms running rival shareholder class actions against construction giant Lendlease have pitched a proposal to join their competing cases, a plan that should find favour with the judge overseeing the cases, who recently forced the consolidation of three duplicate class actions against failed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson.
The plaintiffs in one of two shareholder class actions brought against troubled sandalwood producer Quintis have complained about potential delays that could result from the “overly complicated loss theory” being advanced in a parallel class action.
Six individuals interviewed by ASIC in relation to the collapse of sandalwood producer Quintis have sought leave to intervene in the regulator’s case against the company’s founder, Frank Wilson, after he sought discovery from ASIC of interview transcripts.
Two competing shareholder class actions against developer Lendlease have been locked in for a beauty parade before the judge who recently forced the consolidation of three class actions against engineering firm RCR Tomlinson.
The applicants in the Radio Rentals class action have won access to the company’s excess layer insurance policies, amid concerns that group members’ losses from the allegedly misleading ‘Rent, Try, $1 Buy’ program could surpass $100 million.