Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian fails to overturn ICAC’s serious corruption conduct finding – 26 July 2024
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has failed to overturn the finding that she engaged in serious corrupt conduct.Last year, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found Ms Berejiklian breached public trust, while serving as state premier, during her secret relationship with former NSW MP Daryl Maguire.Ms Berejiklian has long insisted she always acted in the public interest, beginning legal action shortly after the corruption watchdog released its report.
Anti-corruption principles unveiled for public sector watchdogs – 31 July 2024
A framework for legislation and policy governing anti-corruption and integrity commissions overseeing the public sector has been released by the NACC, two years after a collaborative review into best practice principles. The 12 principles were announced by ten independent agencies at the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference in Darwinand are listed in this article.
CFMEU-busting law being prepared, new minister says – 31 July 2024
The CFMEU’s construction wing will be steamrolled with new laws if it resists being put into administration, the new workplace relations minister said. The Fair Work Commission said it not yet made a court application for an administrator for the embattled division after allegations of organised crime links, but the federal government has warned the union not to fight the move.
Former AFL players agent Ricky Nixon to fight memorabilia fraud case – 31 July 2024
Former AFL powerbroker Ricky Nixon has revealed he will fight allegations he knowingly sold counterfeit memorabilia with forged signatures. He was charged in November last year with 10 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception and later with nine counts of make or use false documents related to the alleged fraud. The false document charges relate to certificates of authenticity sent alongside the footballs to buyers.
Scammers are targeting myGov accounts during tax time. How can users protect their ATO refunds? – 1 August 2024
Criminals are changing phone and email details to prevent users from receiving myGov notifications – before altering tax returns and bank account details. The ATO says more than $557m was paid to scammers engaging in identity fraud between July 2021 and February 2023.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/01/ato-mygov-tax-return-refund-scam
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Public sector whistleblowers should be ‘immune’ from reprisals: anti-corruption chiefs – 1 August 2024
The heads of Australia’s anti-corruption agencies have called for fundamental protections for public service whistleblowers and witnesses in a new set of principles.
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Billionaire former Glencore oil trader charged with corruption in West Africa – 2 August 2024
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office has charged Glencore’s billionaire former head of oil trading with conspiring to make corrupt payments to benefit the commodities company’s oil operations in West Africa. Alex Beard, who ran Glencore’s oil division from 2007 until his retirement in 2019, will face charges alongside former Glencore executives Andrew Gibson, Paul Hopkirk, Ramon Labiaga and Martin Wakefield after a long-running investigation into allegations of bribery at the company.
Arrest over alleged fraud – 2 August 2024
A man’s been arrested over suspected fraudulent activity at Gen-U in Geelong.. allegedly involving millions of dollars. The activity is alleged to have occurred over about five years and involves several million dollars. “Detectives have obtained financial and business records from the organisation and these continue to be forensically assessed.
https://www.bay939.com.au/local-news/charges-over-alleged-fraud/
Big name towing director defrauds insurers of $32k – 2 August 2024
A Ballarat towing business director engaged in “double-dipping”, invoicing twice 50 towing jobs and taking more than $32,000 from insurers.
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Microsoft down: Outage was caused by cyber attack, company says – 2 August 2024
Microsoft said initial problems on its Azure cloud platform had been triggered by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, where bad actors try and knock a platform offline by flooding it with traffic until it can no longer cope. The company confirmed its initial investigations had found that an error in the rollout of its own defences to prevent the attack “amplified the impact of the attack rather than mitigating it”. The incident came less than two weeks after a major IT outage knocked global infrastructure including transport and healthcare services offline because a flawed software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected Microsoft devices.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/microsoft-down-outage-not-working-cyber-attack-hack-b2589042.html
Founder of collapsed social media site charged with fraud – 2 August 2024
Authorities in the US have charged the founder of the former social media company, IRL, with a $170m fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses Abraham Shafi of defrauding investors by making misleading statements about the company’s growth. IRL – which was once considered a potential rival to Facebook – took its name from its intention to get its online users to meet up in real life.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgxqw505pq4o
