Two months after snagging one of Perth’s top energy litigators from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, global law firm Jones Day has lured another four lawyers from its US rival for the disputes team in Australia.
A judge has issued an ultimatum to Forum Finance director Bill Papas for his “entirely unsatisfactory” conduct in failing to provide details of personal assets while defending three lawsuits that accuse him of being behind a $400 million fraud.
Administrators have lined up a buyer for a Forum Group entity, as a first creditors meeting confirms Westpac has the largest claim to any recoveries after an alleged $400 million fraud by the equipment leasing company.
A proposal by Bristol-Myers Squibb-owned Celgene to split a second trial into two more hearings in a dispute over patents covering the pharmaceutical maker’s top selling cancer drug Revlimid would result in wasted costs, wasted time and require a second judge, a court has been told.
With $254 million at stake, Westpac wants a court order blocking the business partner of Forum Group founder Bill Papas from leaving Australia, as Papas remains in Greece while fraud allegations swirl.
Thorn Group is the latest lender ensnared in an alleged $400 million fraud by Forum Finance, with potential funds of up to $2.2 million tied up in the collapsed equipment leasing firm.
The director of the Forum Group companies accused of a $360 million fraud involving at least three major banks can’t return to Australia from Greece because he has COVID-19, his lawyer has told the Federal Court.
Japanese bankng giant SMBC has emerged as the latest lender with exposure to an alleged fraud carried out by Sydney-based Forum Finance, with proceedings filed seeking recovery of almost $99 million it says it paid to a unit of Forum Group and controversial director Bill Papas.
A senior partner at Jones Day and member of the advisory committee to the Australian Law Reform Commission has been appointed Westpac’s new group general counsel.
Chevron has mostly failed in its lawsuit accusing Australian petrol station company Ampol of infringing its Caltex trade marks, with a judge finding that Chevron’s case sought exclusive use over the colour red and was “at odds with commercial sense”.