Former Bellamy’s Australia director Jan Cameron has pleaded not gulty to two charges stemming from an alleged failure to disclose her stake in the organic baby food company.
Federal police have charged 12 members of an alleged sophisticated criminal syndicate, including construction industry figure George Alex, which authorities say enlisted the help of financial industry experts and former bankers to pull off a $17 million fraud.
Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit Colonial First State has admitted misleading conduct in certain calls to superannuation members, but has otherwise denied claims by the corporate watchdog that it misled over 12,000 fund members during the transition to MySuper accounts.
ASIC has dropped its fight with Westpac over the bank’s financial assessment of home loan borrowers following political pressure, citing the “challenging economic circumstances”.
ASIC has called for a $15 million penalty against National Australia Bank over its scandal-ridden ‘Introducer’ loan referral program, but a judge has questioned the “superficial” investigations in the case and remarked on the corporate regulator’s “pattern” of bringing enforcement action after remediation programs were well underway.
Australia’s corporate watchdog has lost its bid to obtain Ashurst’s advice to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group about potentially illegal bank fees “for now”, but a judge has signalled that this may not be the end of the matter.
ASIC has launched court proceedings against Melbourne-based foreign exchange and derivative trader Forex CT alleging it engaged in unconscionable sales tactics that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor losses.
Queensland politician and mining magnate Clive Palmer has been hit with criminal charges for allegedly using his position as director of Minerology to allow $12 million in transfers for unauthorised purposes, including to support his party’s political ambitions.
Westpac has been hit with a class action over a “shonky” car loan scheme, in what is the first class to be filed in Victoria Supreme Court following passage of a state law allowing lawyers to earn contingency fees.
Elderly victims of Ponzi schemer Bradley Sherwin have told the government’s class action inquiry of their “horrendous class action journey”, which led to a “pathetic outcome” in which the majority of a $12 million settlement with the Bank of Queensland went to the law firm and funder behind the case.