Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
Former health minister and Prime Trust director Michael Wooldridge wants court approval to manage four corporations, despite a recent ruling from the Full Federal Court that reimposed a ban on him and three other former directors of the collapsed retirement village for violations of the Corporations Act.
The Full Federal Court has reimposed bans against four former directors of collapsed retirement village owner Prime Trust, including former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge, following a successful High Court challenge by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Two units of global insurer Lloyd’s have launched a constitutional challenge to a Federal Court order requiring accounting firm Pitcher Partners to hand over certain insurance documents in two shareholder class actions.
Pitcher Partners has been ordered to hand over information about its professional indemnity insurance in two shareholder class actions over its role as Slater & Gordon’s auditor.
Pitcher Partners has lost it challenge to a ruling socking it with a $5.6 million bill for an accounting error concealed from client Neville’s Bus Service, with an appeals court saying there was a “clear and principled basis” to require the accounting firm to pay the sum awarded for loss and damage to the transport company.
Facing cross claims by Pitcher Partners in two shareholder class actions alleging the accounting firm wrongly signed off on Slater & Gordon’s financial reports ahead of a share price nosedive, the law firm and its ex-directors say they relied on the auditor to ensure the veracity of the statements.
The High Court has upheld an appeal by a mortgage broker with a history of run-ins with the law, finding that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal could not take spent convictions into account when reviewing ASIC ban orders.
Industry group Meat & Livestock Australia is challenging a ruling allowing US company Branhaven’s cow genome patent to proceed, after a judge called the group’s challenge to Branhaven’s amendments to the patent “bizarre” and “flimsy”.
A judge who hit Pitcher Partners with a $5.6 million damages ruling over an accounting error concealed from corporate client Neville’s Bus Service was wrong to hold that the transport operator’s losses flowing from the error were real, the firm has argued.