Amazon, Oracle battle over Pentagon cloud bid may lead to conflicts of interests probe

An unexpected twist in an ongoing legal battle over a $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract has thrust a former Defense Department official’s connections to frontrunner Amazon.com Inc. into the spotlight. The latest development raises the odds that the department might have to restart the massive procurement process, after spending 18 months on it. The Pentagon was set to announce a winner this spring.

Oracle Corp., which opposes the Pentagon’s winner-take-all plan for the cloud contract, sued in federal court to stop the award. The Pentagon said in a court filing made public Friday that it’s reviewing new information about Deap Ubhi, a former employee at a high-level Pentagon technology unit, and “possible personal conflicts of interests” related to the procurement.