National Australia Bank has urged a court to impose a $15 million penalty for its five-year failure to adequately disclose its adviser fees, and has argued ASIC’s push for a steeper penalty goes too far.
Westpac has shot back at a lawsuit brought by ASIC over the selling of alleged poor value insurance products, with the bank saying its customers had agreed to take out the “optional” coverage.
A judge has granted OTC trader EuropeFX more time to file its defence to an 80-page statement of claim and over 2,000 pages of particulars filed by ASIC in its case accusing the company of knowingly exposing its Chinese customers to criminal charges.
A $138 million class action settlement with IAG over alleged junk insurance will go ahead after a judge found he was “bereft” of power to vary his prior approval judgment and include late opt out bids by group members that threatened to derail the agreement last month.
A group of late opt out notices by group members in a class action over IAG insurance, who were egged on in part by a ‘corporate warfare’ campaign by claims management service Claimo, could result in IAG pulling the plug on a $138 million settlement.
Concerns behind criticism that courts aren’t equipped to assess a class action funder’s commission are exaggerated, and the fixing by judges of reasonable remuneration, at least in other cases, is nothing new, a Federal Court judge has said.
NAB has succeeded in blocking accused scammer Helen Rosamond and her executive services company Human Group from varying a freezing order in a case over an alleged $51 million fraudulent scheme so that she can pay her legal bills and living expenses.
A judge has signalled his intention to sign off on a $138 million settlement in a class action against IAG and approve a common fund order that gives the litigation funder a $34.5 million commission, but an application by the funder for reimbursement of after-the-event insurance has been refused.
A judge has vacated a seven-week trial in proceedings brought by ASIC against two former Rio Tinto executives to March or April 2022, after they requested a “lengthy delay” to ensure a COVID-19 vaccine would be available before they travel to Australia for trial.
A former Rio Tinto executive living in the US who wants to appear in person at an upcoming trial in a case brought by ASIC says the hearing should be moved to next year when a COVID-19 vaccine will likely become available and he could travel to Australia to “mount a vital defence”.