ASIC

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has been given the green light to pursue a consumer case alleging defunct online retailer Snaffle charged consumers inflated prices.

Forum Finance director Vince Tesoriero has been banned from managing companies for five years due to his involvement in the failure of 20 companies, including Forum, through which he and partner Bill Papas defrauded Westpac out of $400 million. 

Super fund HUB24, which rejected the now collapsed First Guardian fund as an investment for members, can protect its due diligence process from getting into the hands of rival Diversa, whose members weren't so lucky.

A court has ordered Macquarie Securities to pay an agreed $35 million penalty after finding that “serious deficiencies" in its reporting systems resulted in repeated failures to accurately report short sales.

Developer Robert Filippini, who is suspected of fraudulently receiving investor money from defunct Keystone Asset Management, is seeking to appeal an extension of freezing orders over family trusts that hold property and several luxury cars.

An eighth person linked to MWL Financial has copped a ban for recommending Keystone's Shield Master Fund, which collapsed alongside the First Guardian Fund owing over $1 billion.

Describing it as the most significant corporate governance action taken in his time at ASIC, the regulator's chief says the Star case is a wake-up call for directors.

The corporate regulator has filed proceedings seeking to wind up a company in the steel empire of billionaire Sanjeev Gupta for failure to lodge financial reports for four years. 

The judgment in ASIC's case against Star's top executives and directors sounds a warning that board members need to proactively test information and serves as a "stark reminder" to general counsel that their duties are owed to the company, not management, experts tell Lawyerly.

The corporate regulator has launched proceedings to wind up a company in the steel empire of billionaire Sanjeev Gupta for its failure to lodge financial reports for four years.