Oracle Cancels Venezuela Partner Contracts Citing US Sanctions

Oracle has sent out letters to partners in Venezuela stating that they will no longer be able to work with them in order to comply with President Trump's Executive Order 13884.

After first reporting that Adobe was banning all users from Venezuela from using their services, BleepingComputer has learned that Oracle had already canceled all contracts with partners located in Venezuela.

According to a source, business partners located in Venezuela have been receiving letters from Oracle's Marcia Solveria, SVP, Regional General Counsel and Regional Compliance and Ethics Office, stating that Oracle can no longer work with them.

"As you know, the United States government has substantially increased sanctions on Venezuela over the past two years. Most recently, on August 5, 2019, President Trump issued an executive order imposing additional sanctions on the Government of Venezuela. As a United States company, Oracle is legally required to adhere to this order. In order to ensure compliance with Executive Order 13884 and related U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela, and pursuant to Section R of our Master Distribution Agreement of March 14, 2018 and all Addenda thereunder and Section W of the Oracle PartnerNetwork Worldwide Agreement, Oracle must undertake an orderly wind down of its business Venezuela. As part of this process, Oracle must terminate the abovementioned contracts with you and cannot engage in any new business with existing customers or new customers. Accordingly, you must not sell any Oracle services, products, hardware, or software to any new customers or engage in any new business with existing customers. To the extent there are continuing legal obligations to existing customers, Oracle is assessing the requirements and impacts of applicable U.S. laws and regulations on a case-by-case basis and will follow up with your and/or the customer, if and as appropriate, with additional guidance or instruction."

BleepingComputer was told by the recipient of this letter that they are not affiliated with the government of Venezuela in any way.

They further told us that numerous end users have received the same letter from other vendors and VARs based out of Venezuela.

Similar to Adobe, it is unclear why Oracle is targeting all of their partners in Venezuela rather than just people associated with the "Government of Venezuela" as required by Executive Order 13884.

"The term 'Government of Venezuela' includes the state and Government of Venezuela, any political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality thereof, including the Central Bank of Venezuela and Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), any person owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the foregoing, and any person who has acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, any of the foregoing, including as a member of the Maduro regime"

When we asked Oracle why they are canceling contracts with all partners in Venezuela rather than just those related to the government, we received the following statement.

"We decline comment."

The full letter being sent by Oracle to partners can be seen below.