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The Federal Court on Wednesday ordered former Star Entertainment CEO Matt Bekier to pay a $700,000 penalty for anti-money laundering compliance breaches, around half of what ASIC had been seeking, and ordered a six-year management ban.
The High Court of Australia on Wednesday ruled Block Earner's "Earner" crypto-linked fixed-yield product was a financial investment product and required a financial services license in a win for ASIC and clarification for what constitutes a "financial product" under corporate law.
The Law Council of Australia has challenged the "public misapprehension" that legal professional privilege is inherently scandalous and against the public interest, amid concerns legal privilege will be used to shield KPMG from government regulator requests into the consultancy giant's alleged misuse of confidential client information.
APRA Chair John Lonsdale said the financial services industry needs to lift its standards to protect against geopolitical shocks, in a speech on Wednesday, citing the risks of foreign interference, sanctions and frontier AI models which threaten to change the nature, speed, and scale of cyber, disinformation and operational risks.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority on Tuesday announced new draft guidelines for banking, superannuation and insurance that boost board requirements to oversee risk and governance and adds assessments on the fitness and propriety of directors.
The Federal Government on Monday said KPMG Australia has agreed not to bid for new Commonwealth contracts for three months while it completes its inquiry into ethical concerns around the consultancy giant.
The Western Australian government is planning an independent watchdog to handle complaints about the conduct and capacity of judges and magistrates in new legislation announced on Sunday.
The Australian Stock Exchange agreed on Monday to pay a $20.5 million penalty and $3 million of ASIC's costs in a last-minute settlement with the regulator over misleading updates the ASX made about its CHESS clearing and settlements project, just hours before the planned trial in the Federal Court.
The Federal Court issued a record $300.2 million penalty on Thursday across foreign exchange broker Union Standard International Group and its representatives EuropeFX and TradeFred for "unconscionable" conduct selling risky financial products to vulnerable customers who lost tens of millions.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved the merger between investment banks Magellan Financial Group Ltd. and Barrenjoey Capital Partners in a deal expected to complete in early July, according to a statement by Magellan today.
The Australia High Court rejected Australian revenue authorities' bid to tax nearly $1.7 million that a real estate company held in a trust, ruling Wednesday that the money did not constitute an unpaid loan.
A Victorian lawyer has been fined and given a stayed suspension of her practising certificate after the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal found she engaged in professional misconduct including facilitating the appointment of "dummy directors" before a company liquidation, falsifying documents and failing to act in her client's best interests.
ASIC says financial services firms need to be aware of greenwashing, disingenuous celebrity testimonials and offering unrealistic expectations to consumers including overly promoting benefits and bait advertising low interest rates, in updated advertising guidelines.
ASIC pushed superannuation trustees to speed up their handling of death benefit claims on Wednesday, pointing out that Australia's ageing population has already prompted a 10% rise in claims and with growth expected to continue.
Billionaire Clive Palmer's company Palmer Leisure Coolum has pled guilty in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court to breaching takeover law over a proposed acquisition of a timeshare resort scheme after over a decade of legal battles, including a series of attempted appeals by the Queensland mining and resort businessman to the High Court
A James Hardie shareholder has hit the building materials giant with a class action in the Victorian Supreme Court, accusing the company of misleading investors about weaknesses in its American business that knocked more than a third off its share price value.
ASIC has started a formal investigation into KPMG, as well as two of the consulting giant's audit senior partners, escalating probes into allegations staff misused confidential client information to help win new accounts, agency Chair Sarah Court said in a senate hearing on Friday.
Beauty retailer Sephora and fast fashion giants H&M and Zara have paid nearly $600,000 combined after Australia's corporate regulator hit the trio with infringement notices for failing to lodge timely financial reports, ASIC announced Thursday.
Two former directors of a solar equipment joint venture must return $880,000 to the company after using a faked sale document to extract funds as the business relationship broke down, a Federal Court judge ruled Thursday while criticizing both sides for unreliable, self-serving testimony that forced him to rely on the logic of events over their recounts.
ASIC said on Thursday it has disqualified Genna Raber from managing companies for five years, his second ban, over his complete disregard for his director responsibilities while involved in three failed construction and finishing companies contracted to build Russian embassies in Australia.
Brambles is on the hook for around $20 million in costs after losing a landmark shareholder class action over misrepresenting its expected earnings, with a Federal Court judge on Wednesday rejecting its bid for a 50% cost reduction, saying the shareholders had not unnecessarily pursued weak claims.
The ACCC's new merger regime has cleared its first complex deal with the approval of energy and convenience store network-owner Ampol Limited's acquisition of smaller service station competitor EG Australia in a deal worth $1.1 billion, though it must offload 41 sites to a rival, the regulator announced on Wednesday.
Mercer Superannuation has agreed to a $10.3 million penalty over allegations it failed to inform ASIC about investigations into several issues, including its handling of refunds following the death of members, the regulator told a Federal Court judge on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors have dropped insider trading charges against the former CFO of tech company Big Un after a jury in March failed to reach a verdict on allegations he used companies in his control to sell $5 million worth of the ASX-listed stock before it collapsed, ASIC said.
The Law Society of South Australia has urged the state government to invest $200 million to help address the "sorry state" of court buildings, saying years of minimal spending on upkeep is harming vulnerable court users and has delayed justice.
Star Entertainment must pay $10 million in fines over failures to check if customers were linked to criminal activity including money laundering and terrorism financing, and allowing customers to gamble for over 12-hours in a 24-hour time frame, the casino regulator ruled on Monday, adding pressure on the beleaguered operator.
The Federal Circuit and Family Court has released instructions for the use of artificial intelligence in court proceedings, saying lawyers must make sure related information is accurate and that AI protects the privacy and safety of parties involved in litigation.
ANZ said it is appealing the High Court of New Zealand's judgment handing NZ$125 million to mortgage holders in a class action over loan disclosures.
Federal Court Justice Ian Jackman has called out a number of Federal Court judges for slow delivery of their judgments in what he described as "egregious" delays in a lecture in Sydney on Thursday.
The federal Takeovers Panel has criticized MinterEllison's representation of Humm Group Ltd in its proposed acquisition by Credit Corp, calling out a possible conflict of interest stemming from the firm's earlier work for Humm founder Andrew Abercrombie, in detailed comments released Thursday.
The Australian government’s recent payments regulation proposals for a more activity-based licensing framework will significantly expand the perimeter of entities, indicating that the regulators view payment systems, digital assets and tokenized financial infrastructure as part of a connected regulatory ecosystem, say lawyers at Corrs.
While courts around the world have struggled to articulate a technology-neutral test for patentability of computer-implemented inventions, a recent decision by Australia's top court offers a decisive answer, creating strategic opportunities for overseas applicants, say attorneys at Mallesons.
The recently concluded Australia-European Union free trade agreement could be a springboard for a more ambitious initiative bringing together the EU and the economies of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a critical mass capable of shaping norms across subsidies, sustainability disciplines and competition policy, says Alan Yanovich at Akin Gump.
The Federal Court of Australia recently ruled for award creditors in Blasket Renewable Investments v. Spain in a judgment that explains how Australia's statute book operationalizes the promise of depoliticized enforcement under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention while accommodating, without yielding to, the centrifugal forces of European Union law, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.
