ISX off-topic thread, page-630

From todays Australian

Short-seller to pay damages
Hedge funds have made rich pickings out of falling share prices but US-based Bonitas has come off second best against listed agricultural trust the Rural Funds Group.The US company has been ordered to pay almost $900,000 by the New South Wales Supreme Court after losing a case against the listed Australian firm, which took it on after it was targeted by the short-seller last year.
The judgment found that the US group made statements in a report last August that breached Australian laws. The publication of the Bonitas report contravened both the Corporations Act and the ASIC Act and the court awarded damages of $530,201 and costs of $368,974.
The court ordered that damages were payable by Bonitas and the company’s principal Matthew Wiechert.Rural Funds made a claim for loss and damages totalling $625,985, comprised of $385,000 paid to EY to produce a report refuting claims made by Bonitas, $134,784 paid to its lawyers, as well as $106,201 for internal costs.
The latter was refused.The corporate regulator in February ruled out a licensing system for analysts, in the wake of the original scathing court judgment that called out deceptive tactics from the US-based short-seller.Rural Funds Group took action against Bonitas after a short report published by the firm in October prompted a 42 per cent slide in its stock.
Judge David Hammerschlag criticised the authors for the “materially misleading” and “deceptive” reports, as he found them to be in breach of several sections of the Corporations Act and the ASIC Act.