A judge has given the greenlight to AUSTRAC’s $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws, the biggest regulatory fine ever paid by an Australian company.
A solicitor who failed to respond to calls from the Federal Court has been criticised by a judge for filing what appeared to be a “deficient” application in a case run on behalf of gangland lawyer Zarah Garde-Wilson in her bid to obtain details from Google over the identity of an online reviewer.
The Australian unit of French investment bank Société Générale must pay a $30,000 penalty after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching client money handling rules.
Real estate investment giant Cromwell Property Group will not get the court’s help in pursuing a case of “unlawful association” against its largest shareholder, Singapore-based ARA Group, which has made a $518 million hostile takeover bid, and the family of Chinese billionaire Gordon Tang.
Construction firm Icon Co has won a coverage dispute with its insurers over $31 million in losses stemming from Sydney’s ill-fated Opal Tower, whose residents were evacuated after cracks appeared in the tower’s walls on Christmas Eve in 2018.
Former celebrity advisor and banking royal commission witness Sam Henderson has avoided jail time and been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to dishonesty and defective disclosure offences for falsely telling clients he had completed a Master of Commerce degree.
A contradictor appointed in two class actions against 7-Eleven will argue before the Full Federal Court that the court has power both in equity and under the Federal Court of Australia Act to make common fund orders in class actions on settlement or judgment.
Heavy metal singer Dee Snider has admitted under cross-examination that ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ influenced Twisted Sister’s rock anthem ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ but denied that he had “borrowed” elements of the Christmas carol for the 1985 hit.
AIG has settled a lawsuit brought by Kaboko Mining against several former directors alleging they failed to exploit commercial opportunities, after the insurer failed to convince an appeals court that an insolvency exclusion in the company’s D&O policy should exempt it from covering the claims.
A Sydney lawyer has lost her bid to vacate an upcoming hearing in her appeal of a judge’s finding that investors who sank $12.3 million into a fraudulent sports betting scheme run by convicted conman Peter Foster lost money because of her failure to come forward with the truth.
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