Whistleblower News from the Inside - January 10, 2014

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

UNC whistleblower reports on academic failings of university’s top athletes – On the heels of the UNC academic fraud scandal involving inflated grades and phantom courses, a university researcher presents startling findings on the reading level of the school’s big-money “student-athletes.”  CNN

Growing bridge scandal puts Christie on defensive – The “heartbroken,” “humiliated,” “blindsided” and uncharacteristically apologetic  governor tries to distance himself from the GW Bridge lane closing debacle by firing a top aide and senior advisor, but serious questions remain on Christie’s role in the fiasco.  NYT

Alcoa to pay $384M to settle FCPA bribery claims – The settlement resolves charges of bribing officials of a Bahraini state-controlled aluminum smelter and represents one of the largest FCPA settlements of all time.  Reuters

Former NSA whistleblowers seek meeting with Obama to discuss spy agency problems and abuses – In a letter to the president, the 4 former intelligence specialists (William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis and Kirk Wiebe) claim the “NSA is drowning in useless data lacking adequate privacy provisions, to the point where it cannot conduct effective terrorist-related surveillance and analysis.”  RT

DOJ investigating Health Management Associates over alleged kickbacks – The charges stem from a just-unsealed whistleblower lawsuit claiming the large hospital operator paid physicians for referring patients to HMA hospitals.  WSJ

More than half the members of Congress are millionaires – At least 268 of the 538 members of the House and Senate have an average net worth of $1M or more, the first time in history that Congress has crossed this income threshold.  Time