Engineering services company CIMIC will fork over $32.4 million to settle a shareholder class action, with group members expected to get 40 per cent of the settlement total if the court approves the requested legal costs and funder’s commission.
An ACCC investigator has come under fire from ANZ as the bank seeks to shoot holes in the criminal cartel action against it, with counsel for the bank accusing the regulator of “infecting” witness statements and erasing testimony that weakened its case.
A key officer from the ACCC involved in interviewing JPMorgan bankers during a cartel investigation that led to criminal charges against ANZ and two investment banks has denied allegations that he acted improperly during the investigation.
ANZ has won access to documents the bank claims are crucial to its defence in a high stakes criminal cartel case, but the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has flagged a possible appeal of the ruling.
Westpac is now facing at least eight class actions in various US courts seeking $200 million from the bank for allegedly failing to alert shareholders to violations of anti-money laundering laws.
A sideshow evidentiary dispute in a committal hearing in a landmark criminal cartel case against ANZ and two investment banks has drawn to a close, but not before testing the patience of a magistrate, who warned her ruling would be far from a “Rolls Royce decision”.
JPMorgan has taken ANZ to task for its “heroic endeavours to create an air of suspicion” around the conduct of ASIC and the ACCC prior to the filing of a landmark criminal cartel case, slamming the allegations as purely speculative.
Westpac is facing its first shareholder class action in the US following revelations that it violated anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance laws on more than 23 million occasions, in the first lawsuit to point the finger at the company’s executives.
ANZ is seeking information on whether the ACCC put pressure on ASIC to not pursue proceedings against JP Morgan over a $2.5 billion share placement that is at the centre of a closely watched criminal cartel case, saying the matter raised a “serious question” about potential abuse of power by the regulators.
US litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel has lured a leading patent attorney from Allens to grow its Sydney office.