Lawmakers: Walmart CEO in 2005 knew about bribery

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NEW YORK Walmart (WMT) CEO Mike Duke found out in 2005 that the retailer's Mexico unit was handing out bribes to local officials, according to emails obtained by lawmakers.

The lawmakers say the emails contradict earlier claims by Walmart that executives weren't aware of bribes being made by the company.

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Democratic Congressmen Elijah E. Cummings and Henry A. Waxman, who are investigating bribery charges at Walmart's Mexico division, on Thursday released emails that indicate that Duke and other senior Walmart officials were informed multiple times starting in 2005 about bribes being made in the country. U.S. law forbids American companies from bribing foreign officials.

The lawmakers shared the emails, which they say they got from a confidential source, with Walmart on Wednesday, and sent a letter to Duke asking for a meeting to discuss them.

Walmart president and CEO Michael Duke

/ Win McNamee/Getty Images

"It would be a serious matter if the CEO of one of our nation's largest companies failed to address allegations of a bribery scheme," according to the letter written by Waxman and Cummings to Duke.

Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman, said on Thursday that the letter that Waxman and Cummings wrote to Duke "leaves the wrong impression that our public statements are contradicted by the information they released today."

Allegations first surfaced in April that Walmart failed to notify law enforcement that company officials authorized millions of dollars in bribes in Mexico to speed up getting building permits and gain other favors. Walmart has been working with government officials in the U.S. and Mexico on that investigation.

The company has been conducting an internal investigation into the matter. And last November, the retailer said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was looking into potential U.S. bribery law violations in Brazil, China and India.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Walmart said that it has been providing information to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the documents that were released by lawmakers on Thursday. The world's largest retailer also said that it is exploring other ways to make additional information available.

"We are committed to having a strong and effective global anti-corruption program everywhere we operate and taking appropriate action for any instance of non-compliance," said Buchanan.

The bribery allegations were first reported by the New York Times. Last month, the paper published another story focusing on how Walmart's Mexico division offered large payoffs to get things that the law prohibited.

The story focused on how Walmart paid $52,000 to secure approval to build its store in Teotihuacan on the site of ancient ruins. Although local zoning would have prohibited Walmart from building its store, the Times reported that the company allegedly bribed local officials to have that map redrawn.

In the Times article, Walmart spokesman Dave Tovar denied that executives in the U.S. knew anything about the alleged corruption involving construction of the store in Teotihuacan. Buchanan, the Walmart spokeswoman, said Tovar's comment in the Times article was focused on events in 2004.

The emails released Thursday include an email from November 2005 from Maritza Munich, then general counsel of Walmart International, to Duke and other senior Walmart executives. The email informed them of charges related to bribes paid to obtain permits for a store in Mexico.

The email contained a forwarded summary of an interview with Sergio Cicero Zapata, the former in-house counsel for Walmart de Mexico who oversaw obtaining building through permits throughout Mexico.

The lawmakers also made public another email that Walmart General Counsel Thomas Mars sent on Oct. 15, 2005 to Duke and Tom Hyde, the executive vice president of Walmart. That email referenced to bribes paid to obtain permits for the Teotihuacan site.

"You'll want to read this. I'm available to discuss next steps," Mars wrote in the email.

[Eriverq]

No one No one can do business in Mexico without bribing an official and to think otherwise is just foolish.

[zuuumie]

At the end of the 3rd paragraph, the last sentence reads, "U.S. law forbids American companies from bribing foreign officials."

As I'm certain both Congress, Lobbyists, and other far "Too-Many-Terms in Office Elected Officials know FULL WELL that after Sam Walton passed
away, "WalMart" was Incorporated in "Bermuda", which Factually Means" THAT WalMart is NOT an AMERICAN Company!

Furthermore this means that since just after the death of the Founder, they were no longer Subject to U.S. Federal Income Tax, and the same is true of the States regarding Income Tax; They do NOT pay Income Taxes to any U.S. State either. You can be sure when this happened, that overnight Loss had those in the System running around looking for new sources to replace this Loss of Revenuse along with most other former American companies, now 'Off-Shored."

Also, when they Incorporated in Bermuda, Congress "eliminated all of Walmarts "Corporate Taxes", entirely! That's 100% (one hundred percent).

So, DO NOT confuse or bank on All American Citizens not ever having known these Facts or having forgotten.

Just because Walmart maintains their HDQ in the City & State where they were founded, DOES NOT make them American by occupying the same property.
They are in Fact a "Bermuda Corporation" NOT AMERICAN.

So how exactly, does any U.S. Law really apply to them? Other than their Common Stock sold on the NASDAQ?

[kbbpll]

Business as usual for WalMart. In the US it's not called bribery, it's called "donations". I know of two cities where they built in floodplains and greased the wheels with large "donations" to local business associations.

[cattiej]

Lets all boycott Walmart...if we all just stopped shopping there, they would go bankrupt...come on folks, let's stand up for ourselves...they won't stand up for US, they buy all the junk they sell us from China...then laugh at us..the employee's are only allowed to work so many hours a week so they don't have to pay for their health insurance.
The rich CEO's are putting their bonus money in foreign banks so that our U.S. Treasury doesn't have the billions it should have if the CEO's paid their taxes like they should.
The Republican Party have become the American Mafia party in Washington, D.C. When was the last time you heard from their mouthpiece George Bush? While hundreds of our service people are putting their lives on the line in Afghanastn, Bush is sitting back and taking it easy...now Obama continues the war when he said the first thing he would do when he was elected President the first time would be to bring our troops home...he lied and thousands have died...I am sick of the whole mess and I would like to move to another country. I don't give our country much hope of not going into a Depression in the next year...God Help Us All because our people and our politicans sure won't...