A judge has set aside the pleadings in ASIC’s case accusing a Worrells liquidator of aiding and abetting the illegal phoenix activity of collapsed Queensland property investment advisor Members Alliance Group, saying he is entitled to a “coherent pleading”.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission deputy chair Daniel Crennan has quit his post after questions emerged over $70,000 in rental assistance payments to the regulator’s enforcement head.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been fined $150,000 after a Federal Court judge found the bank had breached the law by increasing a problem gambler’s credit card limit but that the conduct was “not systematic, deliberate or covert”.
An offer by billionaire Clive Palmer to pay $21 million for all remaining shares in villas at the Palmer Coolum Resort in Queensland and drop 14 lawsuits over resort ownership has been rejected by villa owners.
ASIC chairman James Shipton has temporarily stepped aside pending an independent review of $118,000 in payments made to the regulatory head linked to his relocation from the US in 2018.
James Mawhinney, director of the besieged Mayfair Group, has lost his bid to slow down two proceedings filed by ASIC which he claims will have a “catastrophic” effect on his business, staff and investors.
The Australian unit of French investment bank Société Générale must pay a $30,000 penalty after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching client money handling rules.
Former celebrity advisor and banking royal commission witness Sam Henderson has avoided jail time and been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to dishonesty and defective disclosure offences for falsely telling clients he had completed a Master of Commerce degree.
A judge has slapped National Australia Bank with a $15 million penalty over its scandal-ridden home loan introducer program but slammed ASIC’s investigation into the program, saying there was no “real regulatory desire to pursue a thorough investigation as to what in truth occurred”.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.