Regulators

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. 

A former employee of the Australian Taxation Office who faced murder charges over a cold case from 1984, which have since been dropped, has lost his unfair dismissal case after the FWC found he was not forced to resign. 

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. 

A unit of Insignia Financial, formerly IOOF, has paid $10.7 million in infringement notices for allegedly failing to put members’ default superannuation contributions into MySuper products.

A judge has ordered credit card giant American Express to pay $8 million in ASIC’s first-ever case over design and distribution obligations, but has criticised the recently enacted provisions as being “poorly drafted”. 

The ACCC has secured $6 million in penalties against wealth education company DG Institute and its CEO Dominique Grubisa, as well as orders that the company refund $14.7 million in course fees to customers who enrolled in its ‘Master Wealth Control’ program.

Pointing to Westpac’s progress in risk governance since it was targeted by AUSTRAC for systemic failures five years ago, the prudential watchdog has said it will halve a $1 billion capital requirement.

Noumi has agreed to pay a $5 million penalty for violating its continuous disclosure obligations in a case brought by the corporate regulator, but the applicant in a shareholder class action against the food company says the sum should be reserved to compensate group members. 

The judge who presided over ASIC’s successful case against payday lender Sunshine Loans has recused himself from deciding on penalty in the matter, saying a new court protocol might be needed for when a judge makes an adverse credit finding during the liability phase of a case.

Online auction site Grays has been ordered to pay $10 million in penalties after it admitted to making misleading statements in the descriptions of at least 750 cars listed for sale on its website.