Whistleblower News From The Inside -- January 5, 2017

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team

SEC charges three Chinese nationals over trading on hacked law firm secrets—The three men are accused of hacking into the networks of law firms that handled merger and acquisition work in order to obtain non-public information and trade on the information. They are charged with conspiracy, insider trading, wire fraud, and computer intrusion. CNN

German banking regulator sets up online whistleblowing portal—Bafin, Germany’s Federal Banking Regulator, has created a portal for reporting money-laundering and corruption. However, NGOs point out that the system offers whistleblowers no anonymity or other protections. Deutsche Welle

Oklahoma rehab clinics settles FCA case for $315K—Two clinics have settled allegations that they submitted claims for services billed at a higher rate than allowed, or for services not performed at all, to the Department of Labor’s workers compensation program. USAO Western District of Oklahoma

Chicago State University settles whistleblower law suit for $1.3M—The settlement is with Glenn Meeks, the school’s former CFO. Meeks claimed he was fired after reporting misconduct by the school’s former president, Wayne Watson. This is the second recent settlement of the sort for the university. Chicago Tribune

Novartis offices raided in bribery investigation—Greek prosecutors raided the Athens office of pharmaceutical giant Novartis on Tuesday. The raid comes as a result of reports that the company had been bribing doctors and public officials in Greece. Reuters

Michigan police chief arrested on charges of healthcare fraud—Mark Reiss, the police chief of Greenville, Michigan, is accused of failing to remove his ex-wife from his insurance policy following a divorce. If convicted, Reiss faces up to four years in jail. Michigan Live