Zurich Group life insurance subsidiary OnePath Life will refund $35 million to 40,000 customers who were sold life insurance over the phone and were subject to “egregious” sales practices.
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.
The Federal Court has ordered the winding up of Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac and French investment bank Societe Generale of a $263 million fraud, as details of the company’s jetsetting director’s planned return to Australia from Europe remain murky.
Dixon Advisory has agreed to pay a $7.2 million penalty after admitting to ASIC’s allegations that it failed to act in its clients’ best interests on 53 occasions.
A judge has approved a $50 million settlement in a shareholder class action against failed training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, but questioned whether the $10.9 million commission and $12.75 million legal bill could have been “materially lower” had the case been run by one funder and firm instead of two.
A judge has ordered the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to file a replacement indictment to address defects in the document at the centre of its criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement in August 2015.
A Sydney-based broker is facing a class action investigation on behalf of customers who bought binary options over a six-year period, after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission banned the risky derivatives earlier this year after finding they were likely to cause “significant detriment”.
The director of Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac and Societe Generale of a $263 million fraud, is in Europe and will return to Australia over the weekend, although he has refused to tell his lawyer his exact location, a court has heard.
The auditor of stockbroker Halifax Investment Services, whose 2008 collapse left around $200 million in client funds trapped, has pleaded guilty to the first criminal charges brought over auditing services in Australia.
Law firm HWL Ebsworth says it has avoided any negative financial impact from its connection with Sydney financial firm Forum Finance, which has been accused by Westpac of a $263 million fraud.