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Lawsuit reopens Walmart's past practices in Mexico
A lawsuit filed Thursday in Benton County reopens a topic that dragged Walmart through the headlines for years — its past business practices in Mexico.
Last June, Walmart brought to a close a seven-year federal investigation by pleading guilty to bribing foreign officials. It paid $282 million in fines. The New York Times account noted, among others, that Walmart donated cars and computers to governments in Mexican communities where it wanted to open stores. Said the Times:
The investigation, which was conducted by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, came after The New York Times revealed in 2012 that Walmart had made suspicious payments to officials in Mexico and then tried to conceal them from top executives at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. And even when the issues reached the main office, an internal investigation essentially went nowhere.
Now comes a lawsuit against Walmart Stores in Benton County Circuit Court by Shane Perry, a lawyer for Walmart for 15 years until his firing in 2017 and a former Bentonville City Council member. He was an ethics and compliance officer for his last three years with the company.
The suit contends he was terminated for refusing to change a memo he’d written about activities in Mexico to reduce its liability in the investigation of foreign practices. The suit is also brought in the name of his four children, whom Perry contends were dragged into a retaliatory Walmart investigation to dig up dirt on him. It says they were questioned about whether he’d beaten them, an allegation that the suit says arose from an innocent remark to a co-worker about mild use of corporal punishment.
Read more: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/05/08/lawsuit-reopens-walmarts-past-practices-in-mexico