Oracle Corporation said Thursday that Sandeep Mathur, managing director of the company’s Indian subsidiary, Oracle India Pvt. Ltd., has quit. But Oracle denied his leaving was linked to recent allegations in the India press of bribery.
“Sandeep Mathur has resigned from Oracle,” the company said in an email to International Business Times.
“Any article asserting that Sandeep Mathur resigned from Oracle India due to bribery charges is defamatory and untrue.”
Mathur, pictured above, became a vice president at Oracle in 2003 and had been Oracle India’s managing director from March 2011.
The California-based company sells database management software and related hardware.
The Times of India, citing unnamed sources, said Wednesday that Mathur’s departure earlier this month was linked to whistleblower allegations that an Oracle distributor used illegal means to win a contract from the police department of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
In August 2012, Oracle paid a $2 million civil penalty to the SEC to settle FCPA charges arising from a slush fund in India used to pay bribes.
The SEC said Oracle “failed to prevent a subsidiary from secretly setting aside money off the company’s books that was eventually used to make unauthorized payments to phony vendors in India.”
The offenses occurred from 2005 to 2007, the SEC said.
In its statement to the International Business Times, Oracle said: “Oracle India maintains the highest standards and practices to enforce compliance with all laws and our company’s strict compliance policies.”
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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