A judge has dismissed a defensive bid by ASIC to amend its case against GetSwift mid-trial, instead calling on “common sense” to be injected into the proceeding as the hearing enters its second week.
GetSwift “sat on” an announcement about a lucrative deal with US-based automotive sales and marketing firm N.A. Williams for more than three weeks, then leaked the news to the media before announcing it on the Australian Stock Exchange, ASIC has told the Federal Court on day two of a trial in the corporate regulator’s case against the logistics tech company.
Émails show the directors of logistics company GetSwift took a “deliberate approach” to inflating the company’s share price through a constant supply of positive ASX announcements about new multimillion-dollar contracts, ASIC said on the first day of a highly anticipated five-week trial.
Logistics company GetSwift and its directors have failed in a bid for a year-long delay of a trial scheduled to start next month in ASIC’s case alleging breaches of the Corporations Act, despite arguing that the procedural unfairness of a remote hearing gave the regulator a leg-up over the US-based company.
A former Norton Rose Fulbright partner who accused a Federal Court judge of bias has failed in his bid to have the judge recuse himself on the first day of trial in the long running termination dispute, which was heard in Melbourne this week.
Lawfinance, formerly known as Just Kapital, has won summary dismissal of a lawsuit initiated by its founder seeking a piece of the funder’s $5 million cut of the $16.85 million Wickham securities class action settlement.
A judge has agreed to postpone a trial against logistics provider GetSwift until next year when a class action and a lawsuit by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission related to the company’s disclosures will be heard consecutively rather than concurrently.