Westpac has released further details of its fraud claim against Bill Papas, founder of the Forum Group of Companies, painting a picture of an elaborate scheme to misappropriate $254 million to buy real estate, jewellery, luxury cars, racehorses and European football teams.
Baker McKenzie has been accused of negligence in a cross claim by Chinese lender Aoyin, which faces a lawsuit by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers for unpaid fees over advice related to a failed bid to launch a bank in Australia.
Commonwealth Bank’s head of governance has hit her employer with a lawsuit claiming she was threatened with termination for making complaints that the governance team was chronically under-resourced, overworked and had a high attrition rate.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has lost its bid to shut down a class action launched by bondholders of collapsed asset finance lender Axsesstoday Limited over alleged misrepresentations in a $50 million bond offer.
The former director of Sydney financial planning practice Hillross Bella Vista has been conditionally released without a conviction recorded after pleading guilty to falsifying documents uncovered during an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The judge overseeing class actions against Commonwealth Bank over its money laundering compliance failures has threatened to force the parties to go to trial by a certain date if they can’t agree to “sensible” time limits to ready the case for hearing, noting he would reach retirement age in 2024.
Six of Australia’s biggest financial services firms have paid or offered to pay a total of $1.86 billion to customers who were wrongly charged fees for no service or were given bad advice.
National Australia Bank has admitted in court it broke the law by charging fees it was not entitled to collect, but the bank and the corporate regulator are $25 million apart on what is an appropriate penalty.
Australian law firm Gilbert + Tobin has advised fintech Afterpay on the largest public acquisition in Australian history under which US-based Square will acquire all of the company’s issued shares in a landmark $39 billion deal.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its case against IOOF unit RI Advice, with a judge finding the financial services firm failed to ensure its advisers acted in the best interests of clients and did not give inappropriate advice.