Recent temporary measures by the government making it harder to bring shareholder class actions should be part of permanent reform, ASX has said, and enforcement of Australia’s continuous disclosure rules should rest with the share market operator and ASIC.
GetSwift “sat on” an announcement about a lucrative deal with US-based automotive sales and marketing firm N.A. Williams for more than three weeks, then leaked the news to the media before announcing it on the Australian Stock Exchange, ASIC has told the Federal Court on day two of a trial in the corporate regulator’s case against the logistics tech company.
Émails show the directors of logistics company GetSwift took a “deliberate approach” to inflating the company’s share price through a constant supply of positive ASX announcements about new multimillion-dollar contracts, ASIC said on the first day of a highly anticipated five-week trial.
Hong Kong-based casino group Melco Resorts has lost an application for special leave to the High Court to weigh in on a ruling that a NSW public inquiry into James Packer’s Crown Resorts had the power of a royal commission and could order privileged documents to be handed over.
Court documents sought to be kept confidential in a case alleging professional misconduct against barrister Norman O’Bryan SC in his role as counsel for a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities accuse the top silk of continuing to have an interest in the funder that bankrolled the proceedings after his wife was said to have sold her shares.
The former CEO and director of biotech company Sirtex Medical was sentenced Thursday to 18 months’ imprisonment for insider trading but was released immediately on a three-year good behaviour bond.
An appeals court has vacated orders sending opt out and registration notices to shareholders in a class action against AMP after a successful challenge by the lead plaintiff in a competing class action that was stayed after a high-profile litigation beauty parade last year.
Treasury Wine Estates will seek to shut down a shareholder class action brought by Maurice Blackburn after accusing the law firm of breaching its obligations and using documents from a prior lawsuit against the global wine distributor in the current proceedings.
Slater and Gordon’s conduct when settling a previous securities class action against it armed the lead plaintiff with the information he needed to later bring a class action against Arnold Bloch Leibler, a court has heard.
In its latest move aimed at shielding companies from “opportunistic class actions”, the Morrison government has announced a temporary change to the continuous disclosure rules to give companies more wriggle room in updating shareholders during the coronavirus pandemic.