The ACCC has won a record $26.5 million penalty against defunct vocational trainer Empower Institute for “duping” disadvantaged customers into enrolling in courses they couldn’t afford with the promise of free laptops and cash.
James Cook University has followed through on its promise to appeal a $1.2 million judgment awarded against it for the unfair dismissal of physics professor and climate skeptic Peter Ridd.
Lawyers for former Vocation CEO Mark Hutchinson say the corporate regulator is “plucking numbers out of the air” in its bid to secure disqualifications of up to eight years against the former executives who breached their directors’ duties in relation to the collapsed education provider.
The Federal Court has approved a $14.6 million class action settlement with private training company Ashley Services, auditors Deloitte and Grant Thornton, and Holmes Management Group, with IMF Bentham set to pocket around $4.8 million for funding the litigation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will seek more than $4 million in refunds plus penalties when it takes the troubled operator of the Jump! Swim School franchise and its top executive to court for alleged violations of the Australian Consumer Law.
In a win for the corporate watchdog, a court has found collapsed education provider Vocation engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and breached its continuous disclosure obligations by failing to inform shareholders of problems with a large government contract.
La Trobe University has reached a settlement with the head of its law school, Dr Patrick Keyzer, to resolve legal action alleging it breached its workplace obligations when it suspended him over bullying complaints. The university dropped its disciplinary proceedings against Keyzer, with no adverse findings being made.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.
A former political economy lecturer who was fired from the University of Sydney for a seminar slide that imposed the Nazi swastika on the Israeli flag has narrowed his case against his old employer, dropping allegations he was unlawfully terminated for expressing his political opinion.
Two female academics who made complaints of bullying against the head of La Trobe University’s law school and were named in his legal action against the university over his subsequent suspension have lost a bid to keep their identities under wraps.