Walmart Ducked Mexican Laws via Rampant Bribery

Newser ^ | Dec. 18, 2012 | Matt Cantor

[AuntB]

Following the New York Times' April revelation that Walmart silenced a 2006 probe into the company's Mexican bribery scandal, the Times took things into its own hands. In a lengthy investigation, the paper finds that Walmart de Mexico, the country's largest private employer, wasn't a helpless player in a sleazy system: Instead, it was "an aggressive and creative corrupter" whose payoffs allowed it to work around laws and beat out the competition. In a look at 19 store sites tied to bribes, the paper found that "the strictly forbidden became miraculously attainable": In one case, amid $341,000 in bribes, the company set up a Sam's Club in busy Mexico City—without a building license, environmental permit, or traffic permit.

When the firm wanted to build on a private alfalfa field, new zoning regulations should have prevented it—but the regulations weren't official until a map was printed in a government paper. So execs paid an insider $52,000 to get the map changed before its printing. (More than $200,000 in bribes were tied to that location in total.) A former lawyer for the company told US execs about the persistent problem, and referenced the alfalfa field location. But those bosses didn't tell Mexican authorities about the lawyer's report, and Mexican investigators, "unaware of this new evidence," ultimately found no wrongdoing in the case. The company is currently conducting a wide-ranging investigation into all 27 of its non-US markets.

[elpadre]

Does anyone know of any major company doing business south of the border that doesn't have to do the same thing?? If you want to do business down there be prepared to pay graft. It has been that way from the beginning.

[AuntB]

“Can you do business in Mexico without bribes?”

I don’t see how. Pretty soon we’ll be saying that about this once good nation.

[willyd]

Just ask the oil companies what they pay to drill in Nigeria or South America. It would literally amaze you. They do it in the form of outreach programs...but it is still cash in cash out at the end of the day.

[Ge0ffrey]

Carlos Slim from Mexico, the richest man in the world, partially owns the NY Times. Did the Times article mention this? Is Wal Mart a competitor to monopolist Slim? What’s the rest of the story?

[PUGACHEV]

You can’t get a telephone installed without one.