Maurice Blackburn is looking at potentially expanding its shareholder class action against Crown Resorts after it emerged at the NSW gaming authority inquiry that the casino giant may have breached anti-money laundering laws.
A judge has sided with Worley in a ruling tossing a class action after a trial alleged the engineering company misled shareholders and breached disclosure rules by issuing an overly positive earnings guidance of $322 million for the 2014 financial year.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been fined $150,000 after a Federal Court judge found the bank had breached the law by increasing a problem gambler’s credit card limit but that the conduct was “not systematic, deliberate or covert”.
ASIC chairman James Shipton has temporarily stepped aside pending an independent review of $118,000 in payments made to the regulatory head linked to his relocation from the US in 2018.
The lawyers behind two class actions against clothing retailer Surfstitch breached their duties to act in the best interests of shareholders, and their conduct should bar them from pocketing more than $6 million claimed in costs and commission in the protracted litigation, a court has heard.
A judge’s decision to throw out a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley is a loss for plaintiffs lawyers and could result in fewer listed companies willing to settle cases alleging they breached their disclosure obligations, but the ruling is not likely to have a significant chilling effect on securities litigation.
Medical device maker Covidien has lost a bid to have the applicant in a product liability class action over allegedly defective pelvic mesh front $300,000 as security for its legal costs in the event it wins the case.
The maker of pain killer Maxigesic is taking its long-running battle with Nuromol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser to an appeals court after a recent ruling that its advertising misled consumers by claiming Maxigesic provided better, faster and more effective pain relief than paracetamol or ibuprofen.
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.
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.