Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) Settles Over Sun Microsystems Kickback Claims

The U.S. Justice Department announced Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) has settled with them over allegations Sun Microsystems Inc. paid kickbacks of consulting firms in return for their recommandations that federal agencies acquire products from Sun. Oracle settled for $46 million.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, completing the transaction 2010; the reason they had to settle in the situation.

Also taken care of in the settlement were the allegations that Sun also handed out inaccurate or incomplete information to government contract officers, which was said to have caused the agencies to have paid too much for Sun's products.

The U.S. Justice Department had alleged Sun's submission of false claims resulted in others also submitting false claims to federal agencies, including the General Services Administration.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Tony West said in a statement, "Kickbacks, illegal inducements, misrepresentations during contract negotiations—these undermine the integrity of the government procurement process and unnecessarily cost taxpayers money."

Oracle closed Monday at $32.03, gaining $0.03, or 0.09 percent.

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