A shareholder class action over Commonwealth Bank of Australia's disclosure of more than 53,000 alleged breaches of anti-money laundering laws has begun.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn and litigation funder IMF Bentham have moved ahead with the shareholder class action, with the statement of claim to the Victorian Registry of the Federal Court of Australia.
Australian authorities are looking into so-called intelligent, or automated, deposit machines at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) which failed to register warnings of potential laundering. finews.asia reported at the time of the potential of a shareholder class action.
Executives Named
Sydney based CBA has argued that the laundering violations arose after technology linked to automatic deposit machines amplified one error into thousands of lapses.
The statement of claim names executives at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) who lawyers allege knew or should have known about the failures including departing CEO Ian Narev, chairman Catherine Livingstone, former chairman David Turner, chief risk officer David Cohen and former chief risk officer Alden Toevs.
Hong Kong Connection
According to reports, some of the funds quickly made their way from CBA to Hong Kong, leading the regulator there to open its own investigation. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority conceded that it is watching the case for potential fallout in its financial market.
