The son of Banksia class action funder Mark Elliott, who has been accused of complicity in a fraudulent scheme to maximise the profits of the lawyers in the case, was young and inexperienced and didn’t know his father’s conduct was wrong, his barrister has told a court.
A routine practice by the funder behind the scandal-ridden Banksia class action of deleting emails, documented in a letter by his solicitors just days before his death, isn’t consistent with the electronic record maintained in another class action in which he was involved, a court overseeing a trial in the case has heard.
A judge has set aside the pleadings in ASIC’s case accusing a Worrells liquidator of aiding and abetting the illegal phoenix activity of collapsed Queensland property investment advisor Members Alliance Group, saying he is entitled to a “coherent pleading”.
Lawyer Alex Elliott, the son of the mastermind behind an alleged fraudulent scheme by certain members of the legal team in the Banksia class action, has resisted handing over evidence in the case against him, invoking the right to silence in the face of possible criminal charges.
The cost consultant joined as a defendant in the trial over alleged misconduct by the Banksia class action legal team has died, the second person implicated in the fee scandal to die this year.
Lawyer Alex Elliott was complicit in a plan by his late father to mislead the court and group members in the Banksia class action, to conceal conflicts of interest and to profit from the case at the expense of debenture holders, a judge has been told.
Engineering company Howden Australia can view the laptop and other electronic devices of an employee accused of stealing confidential information, after a judge found there was evidence suggesting the worker had not been “entirely truthful” with the court.
The Murray Goulburn class action run by Elliott Legal bears similarities to the Banksia class action, a case rife with scandal and offered up by opponents as proof of the problems with the class action regime. The leading lawyers were the same in both cases. In one they have abandoned any claim to their fees and have walked away from their careers. In the other they walked away with $5 million.
An appeals court has dismissed a second bid by lawyer Alex Elliott to have the judge overseeing the Banksia class action disqualified from hearing claims that he, like his late father, was party to an alleged fraudulent scheme in running the litigation.
An appeals court has set aside an order requiring Alex Elliott, the son of the funder behind the Banksia securities class action, to give a āfull and frankā explanation of his role in an alleged fraudulent scheme to inflate legal fees in the case.