ASIC

A judge has ordered the former CEO and chief legal officer of Star to pay a combined $1.1 million in penalties for failing to act on "obvious" money laundering risks, but said the fines would have been higher had ASIC not struck a "generous" settlement with other directors.

The Law Council says asserting legal professional privilege is not "inherently scandalous", ahead of a parliamentary hearing on KPMG's sharing ofclient information, at which law firms Allens and Ashurst are expected to stay mum.

Kicking off its case against former Noumi CEO Rory Macleod, ASIC has told the court that Macleod was clearly aware of the "dramatic" difference between actual available stock and what was reported to the market in 2019 and 2020.

A lawyer for ASIC has told a judge that $300 million in Shield Master Fund investments intended for property developments appear to have been diverted for other purposes.

An executive director at ASIC has said the High Court has “opened the door” for regulators to rely on a new way to prove corporate wrongdoing that does not require establishing that individuals within a company had a wrongful intent or relevant knowledge. 

A judge has questioned whether Macquarie Financial should get 70 per cent of an interim $102 million distribution to people who sank their retirement savings into Keystone’s Shield Master Fund, which is being investigated for misuse of investor funds.

Lendlease has dropped KPMG as its auditor, after it was revealed under parliamentary privilege that the firm misused the developer's confidential client data. 

Defunct forex broker Union Standard and its former agents have been hit with a combined $300.2 million penalty for “egregious” contraventions, including deliberately pushing risky derivative contracts onto inexperienced investors.

Clive Palmer's resort company Palmer Leisure Coolum has entered a guilty plea to one count of breaching takeover law arising from the proposed acquisition of The President’s Club.

Insurer QBE has admitted liability in ASIC’s case alleging it made empty promises to over half a million customers on policy discounts, but a dispute over the size of the penalty remains.