According to information revealed before Judge John Munter at San Francisco, by Baratta's counsel Exelrod,  Oracle sent one Mr Jan Klokkers,a technical staff of Oracle  to work with SAP at their headquarters in Germany. When he was connected to the SAP systems, technical personnel in Oracle connected to the system through their intranet masquerading as Klokkers. This was systematically done three times a week according to Mr Excelrod.

For the sake of record, it must be stated that Oracle has defended its decision to fire M/S Sandy Baratta alleging that she used her influence with one of the persons who was reporting to her to send an e-mail to her boss to further her promotional opportunities. The company has not however produced the e-mail and says that it has lost it after erasing all mails of Baratta  after declaring her as "Persona-non grata". Infact she was dramatically informed of the firing while she was waiting at the California International Airport to board a plane to France for a business meeting. Did the the e-mail canvassing warrant such a treatment to a senior employee? or was it only an excuse to cover up what Baratta is today accusing Oracle of.

As one can easily appreciate this could be one of the biggest scandals to hit the IT industry globally and can have serious long term implications on Oracle. It also opens up questions of security or lack of it at SAP's headquarters where as thousands of SAP Customers rely on the SAP brand name to design their corporate information systems.

It is sad that a corporation such as Oracle which has been the supplier of popular software for the Banking industry is accused of a crime which betrays lack of trustworthiness and criminal tendencies. It would be interesting to watch the reactions of SAP and how this case unfolds.

Keep watching this column for more on this case.