The Internet reported that the Federal Court of Australia has approved an application from the Australia securities regulator to close 95 "hydra" companies suspected of operating cryptocurrency trading and emotional fraud. The Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)'s winding-up application has been approved by the Federal Court of Australia on grounds of justice and fairness after ASIC found that most of these companies were registered with false information. ASIC Vice Chairman Sarah Court said in an April 8 statement that many of these companies were founded claiming to provide "real services" but were actually suspected of defrauding victims. After reviewing 48 "misconduct reviews" of 17 companies accused of assisting emotional scams, Judge Angus Stewart said in an April 4 court ruling: "There appears to be a common 'pig plate' model in the nature of these scams." The verdict was rendered on March 21.