Walmart said close to settling bribe probe for $300 million

WASHINGTON: Walmart Stores is preparing to pay roughly $300 million to resolve a long-running US investigation into allegations of bribery by its employees, according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal, which the people said was being finalised and still could change, would amount to a significant concession by the US government. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission had sought at least twice that amount as recently as last year as they investigated bribery allegations linked to Walmart’s business in countries including Mexico, China and India. The proposed penalty could be easily absorbed by the world’s largest retailer. The proposed resolution would require a guilty plea by at least one Walmart subsidiary, said the people, who discussed details of the confidential negotiation on the condition of anonymity.

The parent company wouldn’t be charged, the people said. Instead, they said, it would enter into a non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and install an independent monitor to supervise the company’s compliance with the settlement.


Walmart declined to comment. Walmart’s latest annual report didn’t disclose any legal reserve and said the company didn’t expect a settlement to have a material impact on its business. Representatives of the Justice Department and the SEC declined to comment.

The case gained national prominence through articles in the New York Times detailing alleged bribery and a potential cover-up by high-level executives in Mexico. The reduced figure suggests that the case was difficult to prosecute once federal investigators gathered and scrutinized evidence, the people said.

Much of the alleged misconduct uncovered in Mexico, which has the most Walmart stores outside the US, was too old to prosecute, people familiar with the matter have said. Also, most of the behavior under scrutiny involved dozens of small payments to government officials to speed zoning and building permits — not the type of vast corruption involving million dollar bribes as seen in other industries like mining, drilling and telecommunications, the people said.

Because of the challenges in Mexico, the government tried to build stronger cases around conduct found in Brazil and India, two people familiar with the matter have said. The probe into China operations, in the final phase, didn't uncover widespread bribes to officials there, the people said.