The Railway Ministry has initiated an internal probe into bribery allegations around multinational technology firm Oracle following an order by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to sources, the Ministry has initiated an internal investigation to look into the charges. “This is a preliminary investigation. The Ministry is reviewing the charges and is in the process of getting more information on the issue including the PSU and the officials involved,” said a person familiar with the development.
The SEC in an order dated September 27 had fined Oracle $23 million for violations of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by Oracle Corporation. From at least 2014 through 2019, employees of Oracle subsidiaries based in India, Turkey, and the UAE used discount schemes and sham marketing reimbursement payments to finance slush funds held at Oracle’s channel partners in those markets, the SEC had noted.
In 2019, Oracle India sales employees also used an excessive discount scheme in connection with a transaction with a transportation company, a majority of which was owned by the Ministry of Railways, it had said.