Watson Mangioni Lawyers

APRA’s purely documentary case against troubled fund manager IOOF has been dismissed by the Federal Court as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”, in another major blow to financial services regulators pursuing action in the wake of the banking royal commission.

Five IOOF executives will learn their fate this week when a judge rules on a disqualification bid by the prudential regulator, the first judgment to be delivered by a court in a case filed in the wake of last year’s scandal-airing banking royal commission.

A judge has signed off on a $40 million settlement reached in shareholder class action against Sirtex, including a $10 million cut for the funders, saying commission rates should reflect the risks taken by funders.

An application by the former boss of Sirtex Medical for a sentencing date in the insider trading case against him has raised the ire of a NSW District Court judge, who called the bid premature and an attempt to jump the queue.

Lawyers for IOOF chief financial officer David Coulter have dismissed APRA’s allegations that he breached his superannuation duties as commercially “naïve”, “absolutely desperate” and a “most egregious example” of impulsive regulatory enforcement action.

The former directors of troubled fund manager IOOF have slammed APRA for bringing a “truly hopeless” disqualification case against them, telling a court the prudential regulator’s “Stalinist” approach was deterring “good people and good companies” from participating in the superannuation industry.

APRA has been accused of harbouring an “unhinged hatred” for former IOOF managing director Chris Kelaher by his counsel, who was objecting to internal APRA documents he claims were disparaging of the wealth management company and its executives.

The former CEO and director of biotech company Sirtex Medical, Gilman Wong, is facing a maximum ten years in prison after pleading guilty to insider trading.

The prudential regulator has opened the first day of its case against IOOF directors and entities by claiming the wealth manager’s liability is “plain as a pike staff”, as IOOF contends the regulator’s case is “artificial and theoretical” and “overly simplistic”.

A self-described “vigilant lawyer against big companies” has attempted to make submissions regarding the costs incurred in the Sirtex shareholder class action settlement, with legal fees and funders’ commissions chewing up half of the $40 million settlement figure. Maurice Blackburn took the lead after two shareholder class actions relating to the biotech company’s revised sales…