Question

Walmart in Mexico corruption scandal.
Question- Describe the scandal what happened?

Answer 1

How Walmart Bribed its way into Mexico
It all started when Walmart wanted to build a new store in Elda Pineda’s alfalfa field in SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACÁN, Mexico which was about a mile away from the ancient pyramids, So it was an ideal location for them because it was going to attract a lot of tourists. Walmart believed that building a store in this location would attract 250 customers in an hour but id didn't play this way. Town's elected leaders spent years studying and approved a new zoning map. They believed that the town's main entrance was already way too crowded and the also wanted to limit the growth near the pyramids. So this butchered Walmart's plan of building on Mrs. Pineda's field because 2003, zoning map prohibited it.

But thirty miles away in the City of Mexico, at the headquarters of Wal-Mart De Mexico, executives weren't on the brink of being unsuccessful because of an unfavorable zoning call. Instead, records and interviews show, they set to undo the injury with one well-placed $52,000 bribe. he arrangement was easy. The zoning map wouldn't become law till it had been printed during in a government newspaper. Therefore Wal-Mart De Mexico organized to bribe a political candidate to alter the map before it had been sent to the newspaper, records and interviews show. Certainly, once the map was printed, the zoning for Mrs. Pineda’s field was redrawn to permit Wal-Mart’s store. Wal-Mart de Mexico breaks ground months later, agitating fierce opposition. Protesters decried the terrible plan of a Wal-Mart so close to a cultural treasure. They contended the town’s ancient public markets would be decimated, its traffic mess created worse. Months of hunger strikes and sit-ins consumed news media. Nonetheless, or all the scrutiny, the story of the altered map remained a secret. the store opened for Christmas 2004, affirming Wal-Mart’s rising dominance in Mexico. This secret didn't blow up even after a Wallmart de Mexico lawyer contacted Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Ark., and told them everything how Walmart de Mexico used bribery to make its way into Mexico. This raised the alarms and then Wallmart started an internal investigation.

The Justice Department launched an associate investigation of Walmart de Mexico when a series of NY Times articles in 2012 delineate alleged bribes paid by Walmart to get permits to make stores in Mexico. The reports spurred a wide-reaching investigation by the department into the behavior of Walmart subsidiaries around the globe, together with in Mexico, Brazil, China, and India.“Walmart profited from speedy international enlargement, however in doing thus selected to not take necessary steps to avoid corruption,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department said.

WALMART BRAZIL PLEADS GUILTY
As a part of the settlement, Walmart Brazil has entered a guilty plea within the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. According to court filings, from around 2009 to 2010, Walmart Brazil willingly let its parent keep up false records, which then made it into the company’s consolidated money statements. Walmart Brazil and its staff recorded $527,000 in payments to associate treater for help in exploiting construction permits, as a payment to sure construction firms, the court filings show. The intermediary’s ability to get licenses and permits quickly “by sorting things out like magic” earned the middleman the nickname “sorceress” or “genie” within Walmart Brazil, the court filings In June 2018, the merchandiser sold-out a majority stake in its Brazilian operations to non-public equity firm Advent International. Walmart has conjointly entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the executive department. which means the department won't prosecute the corporate if it meets obligations set forth within the agreement for 3 years.

In October, Walmart in agreement to pay $144 million to settle the fees brought by the SEC and another $138 million to resolve parallel criminal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice bringing it to a whopping $282 million to put years of bribery behind it