Failed asset manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments has been served with a class action over the company’s alleged overstated financial reports between 2016 and 2018 that also targets nine former directors as well as auditors Ernst & Young.
The founder of beleaguered investment group Mayfair 101, James Mawhinney, has argued that multiple law firms failed to advise him of the privilege against self-exposure to penalty in proceedings brought by the corporate regulator, which saw him banned from soliciting funds or promoting any financial product for 20 years.
A Federal Court judge has recused himself from hearing a fraud trial against Forum Finance, after expressing that he had an “unfavourable” impression of director Vince Tesoriero’s reliability as a witness.
A judge has raised concerns that AMP Financial Planning has not compensated customers for allegedly failing to prevent life insurance churning, directing the firm to explain the “vanishingly small” number of people who have been remediated.
AMP has admitted ASIC’s allegations that it acted unconscionably in charging life insurance premiums and advice fees to deceased customers, but the wealth manager will go head to head with the regulator over how much it should pay for its contraventions.
The director of a money transfer business accused of fixing foreign exchange rates has filed a defence attacking the credibility of the federal prosecutor’s key witness, but his new lawyer says the attack might not be maintained at trial.
The judge who oversaw a discontinued criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement has bemoaned Australia’s overly complex criminal cartel laws, noting prosecutors stumbled in advancing the indictment despite the case involving a “not particularly complex” set of facts.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has hit back at ASIC proceedings alleging it saddled hundreds of thousands of customers with cash advance fees after providing them with incorrect account balances, saying its customers were “expressly on notice” the fees would be charged.
Brisbane fintech Sniip Limited has filed a lawsuit against American Express Australia, claiming millions in damages after the payments giant allegedly breached a contract to provide card members with BPAY bill payments services.
Two former executives at Fuji Xerox’s Australian unit have settled a lawsuit over their roles in a $450 million accounting scandal that has also ensnared auditor Ernst & Young.