Kevin Connelly Published in the Washington Business Journal
“Oracle’s False Claim Settlement Could Draw Out Whistleblowers”

An article by Government Contracts partner Kevin Connelly was published in the October 24 issue of the Washington Business Journal. In the article, Kevin covers the recent settlement between Oracle Corp. and the United States government. Oracle Corp. paid the U.S. $199.5 million to resolve allegations that Oracle provided deeper discounts to commercial customers than those offered through its schedule contract with the General Services Administration (GSA).

“The rules under the General Services Administration’s schedule contract are clear: The federal government gets the best pricing available for products. Stray from that standard and a company could find itself paying millions,” Kevin warns.

The Oracle case was initiated not by the U.S. government, but by a whistleblower. According to Kevin, this is frequently the case with False Claim Act government contract cases.

“It is often easy for a group within a company to talk itself into believing that a given scenario for providing lower pricing to a commercial customer is justified and allowed within the terms of its GSA contract,” Kevin remarks. “But all it takes is for one individual to disagree with that group’s interpretation, and suddenly a whistleblower or false claim action becomes a real possibility.”