Westpac has agreed to pay a whopping $1.3 billion civil penalty to resolve AUSTRAC enforcement action over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.
Mining giant BHP is seeking to have foreign group members shut out of a shareholder class action over the Fundao dam failure in Brazil five years ago.
Westpac anti-money laundering compliance troubles continue to worsen, with the bank reporting an additional 365,000 incomplete or inaccurate threshold transaction reports to AUSTRAC.
A judge has warned AUSTRAC that it needs to finalise its case against Westpac over anti-money laundering breaches as the regulator readies a slew of new claims, quashing any hopes of a trial this year.
Dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn has launched proceedings against AIG Australia seeking to recover 20 per cent of a $42 million class action settlement it paid, plus the legal costs of defending two class actions.
A judge has signed off on a $37.5 million Murray Goulburn class action settlement but slashed $2 million in legal costs sought by Mark Elliott’s law firm, which is running the case.
BHP has failed in a bid to shut down a class action over the Fundao dam failure pending criminal proceedings in Brazil, with a judge ruling the mining giant would not be prejudiced if the case proceeded for now.
The entrepreneur who funded one of two settled Murray Goulburn class actions will defend his $10.5 million cut of the $37.5 million settlement, a commission that is under scrutiny by a contradictor appointed by the judge overseeing the case.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
Litigation funder IMF Bentham has thrown in the towel in a battle over its cut of a $42 million settlement in a class action against dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn, accepting the Federal Court’s proposed 25 per cent commission rate after initially seeking 32 per cent.