Westpac will pay $13.25 million to settle a class action over alleged losses caused by subsidiary BankSA’s investments in a Ponzi scheme run by convicted fraudster Michael Samra.
The judge overseeing proceedings brought against logistics company GetSwift has refused the corporate regulator’s request for another year’s worth of documents, saying it could effectively require the company to start the discovery process over again.
The original solicitors who stepped down from leading a class action against Westpac unit BankSA amid abuse of process allegations will bring separate proceedings in the Federal Court seeking a bigger slice of the multi-million dollar settlement sum to cover their costs.
The Full Federal Court is set to hear appeals in four class actions in the August sitting, giving the court a chance to address important issues, including cost-capping in joint class actions and security for costs in unfunded cases. Here, we give you the run-down on each of the upcoming challenges.
The applicants in a class action against Navra Group have dropped their case after group members settled their claims in a separate proceeding with the defunct financial planner’s liquidators.
A judge has ordered a leading doctor’s professional body to hand over its member list to the applicants in the Ethicon pelvic mesh class action, after the organisation tried to argue its physical member book didn’t strictly fall within the terms of a court order.
AMP Financial Planning has attempted to qualify its admission to so-called insurance churn allegations by the corporate watchdog, suggesting it might not have admitted to “all contraventions” if it had known ASIC would push for up to 120 separate breaches and $36 million in penalties.
Group members in the Fitch Ratings class action have recovered almost 95 per cent of their losses in a $27 million settlement, which was narrowly approved after a judge scolded the parties for a lack of clarity around the mediation and opt-out process.
Group members in a recently settled class action against Westpac unit BankSA over its conduct in connection with convicted Ponzi schemer Michael Samra are expected to get 40 per cent of the confidential settlement, a result a judge said wasn’t as bad as he might have feared.
Fitch Ratings has agreed to settle the last of the investor class actions in Australia flowing from the global financial crisis, a court heard Friday.