The High Court won’t hear a challenge to a decision finding a Canberra property developer that misled investors about GST on its apartments did not have to pay for losses alleged in a class action against it.
The ACCC got what it wanted when IVF providers Virtus Health and Healius terminated a proposed $45 million merger, but it wasn’t a win, a judge has said in mostly denying the regulator’s bid to recover the costs of its court challenge to the deal.
The CDPP’s decision to drop all criminal cartel charges against two banks and four individuals in a “test case” over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement shows the ACCC “lacks expertise and objectivity” on the financial markets and should leave them to ASIC to regulate, according to one of the former accused.
In a stunning reversal, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution has dropped all criminal cartel charges against two investment banks and four individuals in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, four years after the charges were brought following an allegedly questionable investigation by the ACCC.
Forum Finance director Bill Papasā cousin has hit back at Westpacās allegations he wrongfully received $720,000 from the alleged fraudster in violation of freezing orders made in the bankās lawsuit, which seeks to recoup $294 million paid into an alleged fraudulent scheme.
Class action settlement totals skyrocketed to over $900 million last year, and one law firm negotiated the lion’s share, with $672 million in settlements under its belt.
A group of banks that failed to prove steel giant Arrium falsified representations on loan drawdown notices ahead of its $2.8 billion collapse have been ordered to pay indemnity costs after a court found they rejected $10 million settlement offers three days into the trial.
IVF company Virtus Health has withdrawn its offer to acquire rival Adora Fertility from Healius, citing the competition regulator’s opposition to the takeover.
A senior ACCC officer has been grilled on whether staff training on criminal cartel investigations was āinadequateā while the competition regulator ran a cartel probe into ANZās $2.5 billion share placement in 2016.
The ACCC has been accused of running a “experimental test case” that tries to fit the shares market within the scope of the Competition and Consumer Act with its criminal cartel case against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and several prominent banking executives over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement.