US tech giant Oracle Corporation will pay a $23 million fine to settle SEC charges over alleged bribery of foreign officials in India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The Texas-based software major has been accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by using black funds to bribe officials to do business between 2016 and 2019.
This black money was also used to provide other benefits, such as paying foreign officials to attend technology conferences around the world, which violates Oracle’s internal policies, the SEC order said.
In 2019, Oracle India sales representatives also took advantage of an excessive rebate scheme in connection with a transaction with a transport company majority-owned by the Indian Ministry of Railways.
In January 2019, Oracle India sales reps working on the deal, citing intense competition from other OEMs, claimed the deal was lost without a 70% discount on the software component of the deal, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commission.
Due to the size of the discount, Oracle required an agent based in France to approve the request. The Oracle representative approved the rebate without requiring the sales rep to provide further documentary support for the request.
The SEC order states that India’s Ministry of Railways’ public-facing procurement website indicated that Oracle India was not facing any competition as it had mandated the use of Oracle products on the project.
One of the sales reps involved in the transaction kept a spreadsheet that indicated $67,000 was the “buffer” available to potentially make payments to a specific Indian official, he adds.
A total of about $330,000 was routed to a company with a reputation for paying Indian officials and another $62,000 was paid to a company controlled by the sales staff responsible for the transaction, the US Securities and Exchange Commission says SEC.
The tech giant has agreed to pay a $15 million fine and about $7.9 million in levies and interest. However, it has neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings.
Oracle has also agreed to refrain from or commit violations of the FCPA anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls requirements.
In August 2012, Oracle agreed to pay a $2 million penalty to resolve SEC allegations that Oracle had violated the FCPA’s books and records and internal accounting controls requirements by selling Oracle India Pvt. ltd Holding unauthorized ancillary funds with distributors from 2005 to 2007.
