A former finance manager from Hastie Services and key witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial against two of the company’s former executives only pointed the finger at former COO Ian Thompson to avoid jail time herself, a jury has heard.
The former CEO of a unit of collapsed construction firm Hastie Group told staff to “raid the balance books” to make up financial targets linked to his bonus, prosecutors said at the outset of a two-month criminal trial.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has pared its criminal cartel case against Country Care Group and two individuals, cutting over 100 charges in an indictment that details two alleged cartel agreements the Australian mobility equipment provider entered into in relation to bids on NSW government tenders.
The High Court has granted ASIC special leave to appeal a judgment that let a former director of Gold Coast finance company MFS Group partially off the hook for $147.5 million in misappropriated funds, after ASIC argued the High Court should intervene to clarify the scope of the word “officer” under the Corporations Act.
A judge has dismissed HWL Ebsworth’s claims of a “fishing expedition” and granted discovery of a slew of internal documents relevant to allegations a partner at the law firm encouraged a company’s directors to unlawfully divert insurance proceeds to pay almost $150,000 in legal bills.
A former PPB Advisory liquidator has been jailed for seven years for embezzling $800,000 from defunct property development company Neolido Holdings Pty Ltd.
Months after submitting its final report on the country’s class action regime, the Australian Law Reform Commission has been tasked with undertaking a “comprehensive” review of the effectiveness of the country’s corporate crime laws, including whether the criminal code should be altered to make senior executives liable for company misconduct.
Charges in the criminal cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank over a $2.5 billion ANZ institutional share placement have yet to be finalised, almost a year after the proceeding was filed.
An insolvent mobile ticketing company wants a slew of documents from HWL Ebsworth related to its allegations that an HWL partner aided its former directors in diverting the proceeds of a life insurance policy to pay money owed to the firm.
The Federal Court has been given exclusive jurisdiction over white collar criminal matters, with an additional $35 million in funding coming its way to mange the expanded caseload.