Oracle has agreed to pay $46 million to settle claims that Sun Microsystems, which it acquired last year, submitted false claims to U.S. agencies, the Justice Department said on Jan. 31.
The settlement stems from allegations that Sun paid kickbacks to systems integrator companies in return for recommendations that U.S. government agencies purchase Sun products, the department said.
"Sun executed agreements with consulting companies that provided for the payment of fees each time the companies influenced a government agency to purchase a Sun product," it said.
"Kickbacks, illegal inducements, misrepresentations during contract negotiations -- these undermine the integrity of the government procurement process and unnecessarily cost taxpayers money," assistant attorney general Tony West said.
"As this case demonstrates, we will take action against those who abuse the public contracting process," he said.
The Justice Department said its ongoing investigation of government technology vendors has resulted in settlements with six other companies.
Oracle acquired Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, in a $7.4 billion deal last year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
