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Walmart de Mexico's Bribery Issue

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It’s seemingly that Walmart de Mexico bribery scandal is far from over. Many investigations has been carried out to fully answer what acctually happened in the past, what system failed, and who was responsible for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars bribery of foreign officials, but questions of accountability recently remain unanswered. It also means that Walmart leaders have succeeded in hiding all the important clues to avoid sanctions.

The whole thing began when Walmart de Mexico was alleged orchestrating bribes to obtain building permits, zoning variances, and environmental clearances at Mrs. Pineda’s alfalfa field in 2003. As Walmart started digging the ground at Mrs. Pineda’s field months later, it provoked fierce opposition coming from strong protests, nearby residents, and archaeologists. By offering donations, personal gifts and other bribe payments, they could get approvals from each level of authorities, records and interviews from the New York Time (NYT) report. The secret held even after a former Wal-Mart de Mexico lawyer, Martiza Munich, contacted Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Ark. She had former Sergio Cicero’s, Walmart de Mexico executive’s information about “irregularities authorized by the highest levels” in 2005 and hoped to meet soon. Then immediately Mike Duke, Vice chairman, WalMart International in 2005, sends detailed memos outlining Cicero’s allegations to Walmart senior management (– including Lee Stucky, Chief Administrative Officer of Walmart International and confidant of then-CEO Lee Scott, who is currently on Walmart’s Board of Directors). The later 2005 investigations preliminarily found convincing evidence of bribery that 441 gestor payments, each a potential bribe had been used and Castro-Wright might have been involved in the bribery payments. But there was no direct evidence

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