Federal police have charged 12 members of an alleged sophisticated criminal syndicate, including construction industry figure George Alex, which authorities say enlisted the help of financial industry experts and former bankers to pull off a $17 million fraud.
Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit Colonial First State has admitted misleading conduct in certain calls to superannuation members, but has otherwise denied claims by the corporate watchdog that it misled over 12,000 fund members during the transition to MySuper accounts.
ASIC has dropped its fight with Westpac over the bank’s financial assessment of home loan borrowers following political pressure, citing the “challenging economic circumstances”.
The ACCC’s investigatory techniques have come under fire during a hearing over an alleged criminal cartel agreement between ANZ and two investment banks, with a barrister for one of the banks suggesting investigators from the regulator deliberately did not take notes during hundreds of days of witness interviews to avoid disclosure.
ASIC has called for a $15 million penalty against National Australia Bank over its scandal-ridden ‘Introducer’ loan referral program, but a judge has questioned the “superficial” investigations in the case and remarked on the corporate regulator’s “pattern” of bringing enforcement action after remediation programs were well underway.
Despite receiving immunity in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two other investment banks, JPMorgan has disputed the existence of any cartel agreement since the early days of the ACCC’s investigations, a court has heard.
IOOF has admitted that some allegations in an employee complaint at the centre of a shareholder class action were “substantially true”, including claims that it overstated the performance of its ‘Buy Model’ investment portfolio and that its head of research instructed subordinates to complete his training courses for him.
Australia’s corporate watchdog has lost its bid to obtain Ashurst’s advice to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group about potentially illegal bank fees “for now”, but a judge has signalled that this may not be the end of the matter.
ASIC has launched court proceedings against Melbourne-based foreign exchange and derivative trader Forex CT alleging it engaged in unconscionable sales tactics that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor losses.
Westpac has been hit with a class action over a “shonky” car loan scheme, in what is the first class to be filed in Victoria Supreme Court following passage of a state law allowing lawyers to earn contingency fees.