Government Joins Qui Tam Whistleblower Lawsuit

Washington, DCThe federal government has joined a lawsuit against Oracle that was originally started by a qui tam whistleblower.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">The lawsuit accuses the software giant of overcharging the government tens of millions of dollars for its products and services, according to the Hill. Court documents showed that the lawsuit was originally filed by former Oracle employee Paul Frascella in May 2007 under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act.

The main allegation of Frascella's lawsuit, which the Justice Department has now joined, is that the company failed to disclose discounts to the government that it offered to its best private sector customers.

Recently, several other technology firms agreed to pay large settlements to end qui tam lawsuits. Just last month EMC Corporation paid $87.5 million to settle a case that involved similar charges to those that Oracle currently faces.

Frascella, who started working at Oracle in 1997, claims that the company used a number of methods to offer private companies substantially larger discounts than those given to the federal government.