Regulation

Former Australian Wheat Board chairman Trevor Flugge has been fined $50,000 and barred from managing corporations for five years, after he was convicted in December of breaching his duties as a director while the company was making questionable payments to the government of Iraq.

Bronwyn Barnes has been appointed the new chair of West Perth-based Indiana Resources, on the same day the company went to the Takeovers Panel to fight attempts by a group of shareholders to oust existing directors.

Perth business executive Steven Noske faces the possibility of a gaol term after being found guilty and convicted on one count of insider trading in takeover target Westside Corporation.

The competition watchdog is concerned that the proposed takeover of Bibra Lake-based wheat and barley seed breeder InterGrain by Australian Grain Technologies could substantially lessen competition in the barley seeds sector.

Clive Palmer's Mineralogy has again failed in its long-running court battle with its estranged Chinese joint-venture partner over the Cape Preston port in the Pilbara.

The construction union and some of its key leaders have been fined $242,000 for blocking work on the $80 million Perth International Airport expansion.

An environmental audit on the cancelled Roe 8 highway extension project has found just one minor area of non-compliance in the implementation of management plans by the project's proponents.

The federal government has introduced draft insolvency reforms designed to offer more protection for company directors and make it easier to restructure faltering businesses.

Quintis temporarily put the brakes on its falling share price by entering into a trading halt this morning, as it compiled a lengthy response to queries raised by the ASX.

Two days after Harvey Norman rejected a claim that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was reviewing its accounts, the retail giant has said the corporate watchdog is undertaking a “routine review”.

A former Australian Workers Union official has appeared in a Perth court over the alleged misappropriation of more than $400,000.

A major shareholder in failed manganese company Mesa Minerals has lost its bid to have administrators replaced after the Supreme Court ruled there was no evidence of bias between Pitcher Partners and Mesa's largest stakeholder, Mineral Resources.

The head of the consumer watchdog says some large companies are deliberately trying to deceive customers and that the effects are widespread.

The competition watchdog has rejected a proposal by insurers to cap commissions paid to car dealers selling their add-on policies.

Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer says his bank is putting customers first by backing open data and denies it did the opposite by suggesting they join its poorly performing superannuation fund.

The Takeovers Panel has declined to look into construction giant CIMIC Group's claim that takeover target Macmahon Holdings' target statement was misleading and deceptive.

The corporate regulator has asked the Federal Court to appoint representatives of KPMG as liquidators of several subsidiaries of Pilbara-based property developer Macro Group.

The competition watchdog has raised concerns over South32's proposed $US200 million acquisition of Peabody Energy Corporation's Metropolitan Colliery in NSW, on the grounds that it may lessen competition in the region.

Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has admitted she didn't carefully fill in annual returns disclosing gifts and travel contributions, including BHP Billiton paying for her luxury accommodation and business class flights to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Australian Shareholders' Association has called for companies to do a better job of communicating with their shareholders, following the resignation of a Seven West Media director on the eve of today's report on misconduct allegations against chief executive Tim Worner.

The collapse of yet another Western Australian residential builder appears set to further upset the delicate state of the sector, with financiers, insurers, 350 trade creditors and as many as 130 home owners facing losses.

A Perth recycling company has been handed an $80,000 fine for its part in a workplace accident in which a teenager's fingers were amputated by a tyre shredder.

The Building Commission's Building Services Board has imposed conditions on two Diploma Group subsidiaries, limiting their ability to carry out work, after the parent company fell into the hands of administrators just before Christmas.

An Osborne Park-based building company and its nominated supervisor have been fined a combined $45,000 for negligent work that led to the roof of one house blowing off and another being badly damaged during a storm.

A former law firm manager has been jailed for six and a half years after siphoning $2.1 million from trust accounts to fund her gambling habit.

A now de-registered Perth-based builder has been fined $15,000 and ordered to pay $3,200 in costs after he was found to have engaged in deceptive conduct.

Padbury Mining has again attracted regulatory attention, with the company acknowledging it should have notified the ASX when it negotiated potential capital raisings worth $106 million with a Hong Kong-based investor last year.

Primary Health Care boss Peter Gregg will face charges of falsifying accounts during his time as an executive at construction firm Leighton Holdings (now CIMIC Group).

The environmental group trying to stop work on the state government's Roe 8 project has been refused an interim injunction on construction by the Federal Court, but has vowed to keep fighting.

The competition watchdog said today it planned to deny authorisation to a proposed partnership between Virgin Australia Holdings and Alliance Aviation Services because it would lessen competition in the West Australian market.

The 12-year old scandal over the Australian Wheat Board's payments to the government of Iraq has moved closer to final resolution, with its former chairman Trevor Flugge convicted today of breaching his duties as a director but cleared of more serious charges concerning his knowledge of the payments.

The Federal Court has approved multi-million dollar fines slapped on ANZ Banking Group and Macquarie Bank for attempted fixing of the benchmark rate for the Malaysian ringgit, reaching the decision only "with some hesitation".