I have no problem with key man ins. ,,, Walmart has no compelling interest in these employees , they are replaceable in a day or two ,,, by hiding profits as a non-taxable insurance event and collecting non-taxable insurance payments they are hiding real profits that are meant to be taxed... if you can’t see that you must be blind ...
P.S. Settling IS LOSING ...
They’re still their employees, you have a vested interest in all of them, maybe not as much as they were insuring them for but even the lowest man on the totem poll has a replacement cost.
I’m not saying they weren’t shunting income to non-taxable streams, I’m saying that’s not illegal. Tax avoidance is not illegal, you are allowed to use every loophole in the code, that’s why they’re there.
No settling is not losing. Settling is avoiding a final judgment, losing is what happens when a judge or jury rules against you. Settling is deciding that a case isn’t worth pursuing, most often for corporations it’s the PR hit that makes them decide to settle, that’s why the lawyers go after them, they know PR is the most valuable thing to a company like Walmart and that even if Walmart did nothing wrong and would win they don’t want to deal with the PR damage so they’ll settle to end the bad headlines.
Settling isn’t losing, settling is settling. Litigation is expensive, and companies often make business decisions to settle cases.