MinterEllison

The CDPP’s decision to drop all criminal cartel charges against two banks and four individuals in a “test case” over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement shows the ACCC “lacks expertise and objectivity” on the financial markets and should leave them to ASIC to regulate, according to one of the former accused.

In a stunning reversal, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution has dropped all criminal cartel charges against two investment banks and four individuals in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, four years after the charges were brought following an allegedly questionable investigation by the ACCC.

Australia’s most decorated Afghanistan war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith told a former SAS soldier that when he “blew the brains out” of a young Afghan man it was “the most beautiful thing [he’d] ever seen”, a court has heard.

Former One Nation senator Brian Burston has largely lost his bid to throw out a sexual harassment and discrimination case by former staffer Wendy Leach.

A SAS sergeant testifying for Fairfax Media in the Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial has admitted he told an investigative reporter the decorated veteran machine-gunned a disabled man during the war in Afghanistan, but insisted everything he said was true.

Forum Finance director Vince Tesoriero has lost a battle to stop receivers from selling luxury properties in which he and Bill Papas hold a stake pending the outcome of Westpac’s fraud case against him.

The first order allowing plaintiffs lawyers to take a cut of the proceeds of a class action will guarantee group members in a case against G8 Education at least 72.5 per cent of any recoveries — a notably higher percentage than the minimum legislated by a controversial bill before federal parliament.

It was common knowledge that SAS soldiers sought the retraction of a “bulls–t” commendation awarded to war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith for acts of bravery in Afghanistan in 2012, a trial in a defamation case against Fairfax has heard.

Fairfax has accused senior counsel representing Ben Roberts-Smith of using cross-examination to try to identify the source of allegedly defamatory articles that accused the former SAS soldier of war crimes.

Eight rounds of ammunition were unloaded into the chest, neck and face of an Afghan man after decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith told a subordinate to, “Shoot him or I will”, a court has heard.