Almost nine years separates two events, yet they belong so much together it’s hard to resist placing them side-by-side. The first was in December 2015, when a listed company issued a statement saying the Financial Markets Authority had reviewed aspects of its 2014 prospectus “and concluded that no further action is warranted”. The second was a week ago, when shareholders of the company won a settlement payout after taking legal action against its directors and promoters alleging the very same prospectus was misleading and deceptive. It is understood the amount paid to shareholders, after costs, is many millions of dollars. The obvious conclusion is the payout would not have occurred unless there was strong evidence the prospectus was misleading. The next obvious conclusion is the FMA was wrong nine years ago. Well, wrong is one word for it. Other appropriate words could be inept, supine, lazy, confused or blind. Forgive the language, but this one has been percolating a while. The company concerned was Intueri Education Group and the issues driving the legal action were first unveiled publicly by yours truly in September 2015, with further revelations following that November. By June 2017 Intueri was in administration and shareholders lost 100% of their money.

Class Action

The claim was ultimately successful. How much the plaintiffs recovered is confidential but their lawyer Fionnghuala Cuncannon said: “I’m really delighted for the claimants. It’s a good result and a good result for class action claims generally.” It is.

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