The corporate watchdog has reached a settlement with a former director of the Westpoint group of companies.
ASIC will cease litigation proceedings against a former director of Westpoint after reaching a confidential settlement.
The corporate regulator said it had reached an agreement to settle legal action against Lynette Rochelle Schiftan on behalf of a number of Westpoint mezzanine finance companies.
"The terms of settlement are confidential pursuant to the deed of settlement," an ASIC statement said.
"As part of the settlement, all matters between ASIC and Schiftan have been resolved and the proceedings commenced by ASIC in the Federal Court in the name of the Westpoint companies against Schiftan have been discontinued."
Meanwhile, ASIC said it would vigorously defend a compensation action involving Westpoint investors and financial services firm KPMG.
Last month, KPMG disputed ASIC's action to recover compensation for Westpoint investors, with the accounting firm initiating a High Court challenge against the corporate regulator.
KPMG is seeking a declaration that section 50 of the ASIC Act, which empowers the regulator to begin and carry on a proceeding in the name of a company, is unconstitutional.
ASIC said it would vigorously defend the challenge and maintained section 50, in empowering it to bring proceedings for the benefit of investors who had suffered losses and might otherwise never be compensated, was valid.
If KPMG's declaration is successful, ASIC will not have powers to continue the action to obtain compensation against KPMG in the order of $200 million for the benefit of Westpoint investors.
The two non-consecutive alphabetic letters encountered most often last week caused more controversy than the underlying policy they represented, Wouter Klijn writes.... read more »
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