Three banks have been committed to stand trial after pleading not guilty to criminal charges stemming from an alleged cartel agreement reached in a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, with the closely watched case now moving to the Federal Court two-and-a-half years after it was filed.
The columnist behind two allegedly defamatory Australian Financial Review articles has told the court that he believed former Blue Sky managing director Dr Elaine Stead was “cretinously stupid” because of her “astonishingly ridiculous” behavior on social media at the time of the company’s collapse.
A judge has given his blessing to investors to pursue a class action against financial services firm Linchpin Capital and its subsidiary Endeavour Securities, saying there was a strong possibility the failed companies’ alleged liability would be covered by an insurance policy.
Online retailer Kogan has been hit with a $350,000 penalty for misleading customers during its 2018 TAXTIME promotion by offering discounts on products whose prices had been inflated, far short of the $2 million penalty sought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Nine-owned Fairfax has denied that two Australian Financial Review articles implied that venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead “deliberately” destroyed capital, as it seeks to significantly reduce the defamation case it faces.
The parties in a class action against AMP over changes to its buyer of last resort policy have agreed to a communications protocol making settlement offers and for releases attached to BOLR payments that require exiting financial advisers to waive their claims in the litigation.
Being called a fraud is not as bad as being labelled a “terrible investor”, venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has said during trial in her high-profile defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax over two articles about her involvement in the failed investment company Blue Sky.
The son of Banksia Securities class action funder Mark Elliott questioned his father on whether it was “right” to rip up a $64 million settlement with the collapsed lender’s trustee if the deal didn’t guarantee him a $12.8 million commission, a court has heard.
A judge has enjoined Merck Sharpe and Dohme from launching its 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine after finding it would infringe claims of a Wyeth patent for its Prevnar 13 vaccine, despite MSD’s argument that barring it from launching the vaccine would be contrary to the public interest.
Lawyer Alex Elliott has told a judge he didn’t know when he postdated cheques for members of the Banksia class action legal team that it was done to mislead the appeals court in the case, but has admitted that in hindsight “it doesn’t look good”.