Regulators

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.

A former owner of the Ubertas property development group is suing Deloitte Private and Pitcher Partners, alleging they gave her negligent advice that led to an audit and a $12 million tax bill.

The privacy watchdog has ordered credit provider American Express to implement more stringent security controls and pay compensation to a customer whose information was improperly accessed by an AMEX worker they had a relationship with.

The consumer watchdog has taken fast food burger chain Grill’d to court for allegedly misleading consumers by overstating how much money would go towards planting trees as part of its Tree Day Tuesday promotion.

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. 

Mail order company Magnamail has denied allegations by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that it sent false or misleading promotional material implying customers were eligible for major prizes if they ordered from its catalogues. 

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.