ASIC

The corporate regulator has taken market operator ASX to court for allegedly making misleading statements about the replacement project for its CHESS share register, including that the project was on track to go live in April 2023. 

The Full Court is set to weigh in on whether judges who make adverse findings on credibility during the liability phase of a hearing should recuse themselves from determining penalty, an issue which a judge has said may require a new court protocol.

A judge has signed off on an agreed-to $5 million penalty against Noumi in ASIC proceedings for violating its continuous disclosure obligations and found the food company’s non-disclosures caused it shares to trade at an inflated price.

A judge has ordered Mercer Superannuation to pay $11.3 million for “reckless, if not deliberate” representations about so-called sustainable investment options that included investment in oil and gas companies, including BHP and Origin Energy. 

Sydney-based wealth guru Dominique Grubisa has been banned from managing corporations for 18 months after an ASIC investigation found two companies she managed owed more than $300,000 to creditors.

The Queensland Court of Appeal has knocked back a challenge by jailed investment guru Dr Roger Munro to his conviction on three counts of fraud, which landed him a four-and-a-half month prison sentence.

Hong Kong-based NGS Crypto Group and its director have lost their bid to undo receivership and freezing orders made amid concerns about dissipation of assets as ASIC investigates whether hundreds of Australians who sank $21.1 million into the crypto firm were misled about the safety of their investments.

ANZ has confirmed that senior executives could face consequences in an investigation led by Herbert Smith Freehills and Allens regarding concerns that it manipulated government bond sales last year. 

ASIC has brought civil penalty proceedings against Chinese government-owned agri-business COFCO, alleging it manipulated the market for Eastern Australian wheat futures market contracts in 2022. 

Four people have been charged with conspiracy to commit market rigging and false trading after an ASIC investigation into an alleged scheme organised on social media app Telegram to pump shares in Australian stocks and dump them at inflated prices.