I may have hit the same problem from Python, where I call arcpy.ReconcileVersions_management.
The Error message is the same, and I can reconcile and post the version from ArcMap.
I'm running ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 with an Oracle ArcSDE database.
It's probably the SE_INVALID_VERSIONINFO_OBJECT (-180) error message, but the description:
[INDENT]�?�The VERSIONINFO object has not been initialized�?�[/INDENT]
is not much of a help.