Oracle Pays $23 Million To SEC To Settle Bribery Charges (theregister.com) 17
Oracle has paid $23 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to settle corruption charges that subsidiaries in Turkey, United Arab Emirates and India used "slush funds" to bribe foreign officials to win business. The Register reports: The SEC said on Tuesday that Big Red violated provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) during a three-year period between 2016 and 2019. The cash that was apparently surreptitiously set aside was also spent on paying for foreign officials to attend technology conferences, which breaks Oracle's own internal policies and procedures. And the SEC said that in some instances, it found Oracle staff at the Turkish subsidiary had spent the funds on taking officials' families with them on International conferences or side trips to California.
"The creation of off-books slush funds inherently gives rise to the risk those funds will be used improperly, which is exactly what happened here at Oracle's Turkey, UAE, and India subsidiaries," said Charles Cain, FCPA unit chief at the SEC. "This matter highlights the critical need for effective internal accounting controls throughout the entirety of a company's operations," he added. Oracle, without admitting or denying the findings of the SEC's investigation, has agreed to "cease and desist from committing violations" of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls of the FCPA, said the Commission.
"The creation of off-books slush funds inherently gives rise to the risk those funds will be used improperly, which is exactly what happened here at Oracle's Turkey, UAE, and India subsidiaries," said Charles Cain, FCPA unit chief at the SEC. "This matter highlights the critical need for effective internal accounting controls throughout the entirety of a company's operations," he added. Oracle, without admitting or denying the findings of the SEC's investigation, has agreed to "cease and desist from committing violations" of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls of the FCPA, said the Commission.
Good news! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is great. I'm confident that this $23 million settlement will be painful enough for Oracle to convince them that this was not worth it, and they should never try anything like this again
Re: (Score:2)
What percentage of the profits they made from the bribery, corruption & fraud do you think that is?
Re: (Score:2)
So less than 0.1% of their 2021–2022 profit? (Score:4, Informative)
Seems fair.
Does this count as irony? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
But they don't disappear. The hard part in these investigations is proving whether the activity was inadvertent, negligent, or knowing. By forcing Oracle to agree to "cease and desist from committing violations" they concede that any future violation is knowing.
$23M huh? (Score:2)
Judging by the amount of Oracle-branded shit that has been showing up at my doorstep due to my wife being a decision-maker in her organization about whether to use Oracle's HR software suite or go with their competition, I would assume that $23M is roughly their budget they spend on business acquisition for one or two Fortune 500 companies.
Water bottles.
Umbrellas.
Golf balls.
Wine tastings.
Blankets.
Apparel.
The list goes on. Considering that a foreign government probably pays them 2x to 5x a year what this on
Re: (Score:2)
Oracle only gives cheap crap when they are looking for a million dollar deal?
I was expecting an Oracle labelled Tesla at least, if not a Ferrari :P
Peanuts (Score:2)
Expected effect: None. Probably was cheaper to pay this than to hide their criminal efforts better.
SEC doesn't understand what "risk" means (Score:1)
"The creation of off-books slush funds inherently gives rise to the risk those funds will be used improperly ..." said Charles Cain, FCPA unit chief at the SEC
So I take it then that the SEC supports the "proper use" of "off-books slush funds"? Maybe a kitty to buy the office stationary and 10 million cups of coffee?
Please elaborate mister ineffectual government PR drone. Next time I feel like bribing government officials I'll make sure I do it the right way.
In other news: The creation of a backyard dirty bo
Jail Time (Score:2)
You cannot throw a company in prison. But these crimes are not committed by some amorphous entity. There are people at the helm and they need to be held accountable.
It was the Turks wot dun it (Score:3)
Presumably Oracle's defence will be that their Turkish subsidiary broke the rules, that noone in the US knew about it, that in Turkey it's standard operating procedure (it is) and they didn't break any Turkish laws. The crucial question is whether any Oracle executive in Turkey has been sacked and is still unemployed; if they walked into a new job, then that would demonstrate that the pretend sacrifice of an executive wasn't real.
As a former employee.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I had to take this damn training EVERY year and complete quizzes that ensured I knew exactly what was allowed and disallowed under the law. The amount of training we had to take every year amounted to probably 1 week of work, it was insane and the thing I hated most about working for Oracle.
The sub-standard pay and siloed org ceilings were other reasons I don't work there anymore...
Really? (Score:1)
The SEC saying, "nice company you have here, it would be a shame if something happened to it" and now they bribe them too? :-)
You call it a "fine" (Score:2)