Posted on 12/18/2012 5:34:22 PM PST by 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.
Can you do business in Mexico without bribes?
Can you do business in the USA without bribes?
The polite term is "lobbying."
It’s called “tipping.”
You can’t do business with the government without them.
I thought it was considered politically correct for Americans corporations to honor local traditions.
See ya in the slammer, guys...
So, what if when we get to the very bottom of this we find out that the sitting President of Mexico, then Governor of the State of Mexico took bribes to allow thee busines to start up. Let’s go finish the job.
$341 grand? Oh my that's cheap. Considering all the freezerfuls of cold cash that would be needed to get the same thing done in the USA.
in this case it looks like the bribe was needed in order to avoid being legally cheated
Countries that continue to allow that will fall.
La mordida, the bite is so pervasive that not paying would be the exception not the rule.
“Countries that continue to allow that will fall.”
Its the way business is done throughout the world. They don’t fall but they don’t succeed either.
I am sure some of our last remaining supporters of Free Trade Globalism will have some positive spin on this...
I never understood all the cheer-leading for Wal Mart...it never was much of a pro-American company (especially after Sam Walton died)...and based most of its success on just being cheap...and not being really creative or ingenuitive. And it cost us millions of American jobs in the process.
Yes, they have cheap products...but we pay for it in other areas.
I can remember older people a few years ago telling me that “Woolworth’s would never go out of business”. Wal Mart is headed that same direction...especially with Target getting more aggressive outside the US
they are going to be mightily hobbled
Oh please.
La Mordita is how everything is done in Mexico. Bribery is expected and accomodated, with government officials being the worst miscreants.
It’s where we’re headed. Official corruption in even the smallest of day to day interactions. Police, tax assessors, public utilities, you name it. If you want it or want out of it, you’ll have to grease a palm or two.
Wally World has a formidable infrastructure. Ever visit Bentonville, Arkansas and have a gawk around? Bunkers that could withstand a nuke. Their own private fleet of dedicated trucks. These are folks that play for keeps. They could, if they wanted, saw off their Mexican arm and not even miss it.
mordida (”bite”)
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