The lead plaintiffs in two shareholder class actions against Dick Smith can amend their case against accounting firm Deloitte, less than two months before a mammoth hearing is set to commence.
There is a “reasonable chance” that two shareholder class actions against failed electronics retailer Dick Smith will settle by February of next year, group members have learned.
Accounting giant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu will not face cross claims over the collapse of failed retailer Dick Smith when a hearing of three shareholder class actions kicks off in three months.
Two former Dick Smith directors targeted by dual class actions have expanded their case against Deloitte over the retailer’s 2016 collapse, saying if the company was found liable for shareholder losses then the auditor should be blamed for its shoddy work on the company’s financial statements during its float three years earlier.
Ernst & Young, which is facing a lawsuit brought by the receiver of a fund overseen by failed financial services firm LM Investment Management, has lost its bid to file a claim for damages against LMIM, with a judge saying the auditor’s case was “flawed” and “counterintuitive”.
Former Dick Smith executives Nick Abboud and Michael Potts have pointed the finger at the defunct electronics retailer’s other directors in response to cross claims by auditor Deloitte, which is named in two shareholder class actions over the company’s collapse.
Two former executives of Dick Smith may seek to vacate an upcoming trial date for two class actions against the failed retailer, after recently being hit with cross claims by the company’s former auditor, Deloitte.
Allianz and a number of other insurers of Dick Smith are now facing a class action over the extent of coverage under an insurance policy for the collapsed electronics retailer’s initial public offering.
Lawyers for Deloitte were questioned by an appeals court Monday after arguing that the accounting giant’s partners had no access to the firm’s files, stored in a locked “litigation room”, and no power to hand them over to comply with discovery orders in a shareholder class action over the collapse of client Hastie Group.
Accounting giant Deloitte has failed in its bid to strike out claims made in two shareholder class actions alleging it was careless in auditing the financial statements of electronics retailer Dick Smith ahead of its collapse in 2016.