BlueScope Steel general manager Jason Ellis wanted no record kept of a meeting with four of the company’s competing steel distributors and warned his national sales manager to keep the talks under wraps, a court hearing the ACCC’s price-fixing case was told on Thursday.
A former Deutsche Bank executive named in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement says the charges against him are defective and should be quashed.
BlueScope has labelled “delusional” an argument by the competition regulator that alleged correspondence from a distributor about the steel company’s suggested higher prices was evidence of price-fixing.
Steel maker Bluescope’s claim that it didn’t engage in cartel conduct because it only encouraged distributors to set a price for its products would “eviscerate” cartel laws, the ACCC has told a court.
The banks and high-ranking executives targeted in pared-down criminal cartel proceedings over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement are taking new steps to shut down the long-running case, including further probes into the ACCC’s conduct during its investigation into the alleged cartel.
Prosecutors have withdrawn two-thirds of the charges in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement and have dropped their case against former Citigroup CEO Stephen Roberts, according to a lawyer in the case.
A judge has denied a law firm’s bid to stay a rival’s closed shareholder class action against construction giant Boral but warned courts must be alive to the potential for conflicts where lawyers stand to reap “very significant financial awards” from class action proceedings.
When trial begins next month in the ACCC’s cartel case against BlueScope Steel, the parties will all appear by video, with a judge saying “hybrid” hearings – where some parties are in court and others appear by video – were “unsatisfactory”.
Investment banks accused in the criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement will not lose their right to a fair trial with the release of a judgment finding the prosecutors’ indictment deficient, a judge has ruled.
After winning a three-way contest to lead a shareholder class action against construction giant Boral, Maurice Blackburn is seeking to stay a competing class action by Phi Finney McDonald that was allowed to continue as a closed class action.