The former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson has been charged with 70 counts of criminal misconduct.
Guardian Australia understands the charges were laid on Wednesday morning by Victoria police, and Jackson will face Melbourne magistrates court on 19 September.
Victoria police said that it and the Australian federal police’s joint union taskforce Heracles had charged a 49-year-old New South Wales woman with 70 counts of theft and deception-related offences as a part of an ongoing investigation.
In August 2015 Jackson was involved in a case before the federal court with the HSU seeking repayment of $1.4m relating to her time as national secretary of the union. Jackson was national secretary between January 2008 and February 2015.
Jackson became a household name as a whistleblower alleging corruption within the HSU. Before her case against her former union, she was lauded by Coalition figures including Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne, who said she would be remembered as a “lion of the union movement”.
Guardian Australia has contacted Jackson for comment.
