Oracle settles over invoice fraud

Oracle has paid out $8m (£4.3m) to settle a lawsuit brought by the US government, which had accused the company of invoicing for computer training it had never provided.

The case was brought against Oracle after a whistleblower at the company’s training division contacted the US government about what he claimed were potentially fraudulent billing practices.

Federal officials said the whistleblower would be paid around $1.5m out of the settlement for his information.

It was alleged that Oracle had submitted a number of false invoices for computer training to various government agencies between 1997 and 2003. 

The company had been accused of pre-billing for training that did not subsequently take place. US authorities had claimed Oracle had violated the False Claims Act.