Monday, November 12, 2012

Feds Target Walmart

Interesting story related to corporate crime by Walmart. Check it out!!! http://www.newser.com/story/144658/feds-target-walmart-bribery-scam-in-criminal-inquiry.html

29 comments:

  1. In the 90’s, Wal-Mart was one of the nation's number-one retailer. Every Day Low Prices went international. Wal-Mart is convenient for many people to get an all in one shopping experience. I just don’t see why they would need to bribe Mexican officials to build their growth. The convenience of the store itself will sell.
    This would not be good if they are found guilty. I don’t think Sam Walton would have been happy about this. I see that the stocks already have started to plunge because of the allegations. I wonder how the employees will be affected if Wal-Mart is sued. The employees that work for the Wal-Mart usually get bonuses every three months but if a person gets hurt at the store or there is a lot of loss, they don’t receive the bonuses. Which I think is unfair to them. So in reference to if Wal-Mart is found guilty I believe they will take it out on the employees. Then again we are talking about a white collar crime so I don’t see it as being a real punishment maybe just a slap on the hand. They are a billion dollar company. The suit alone will probably not even make a dent in their profits. Plus the difference will just be taken out of the employees bonuses to make up for the loss that they caused

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  2. I can believe that this happen, because most corporate crimes occurred for money gain. It seems like no matter how much money a company has they always want to more. Taking what I have learned from this class I am thinking that even if Wal-Mart is found guilty of these allegation nothing major will happen they will probably only have to pay a fine and everything will go back to normal.

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  3. This isn't surprising and I know that in other countries as well as Mexico, it's just part of the price of doing "business". However if the Feds decide to pony up and go afte Walmart then they are going to have to go after almost every single company in every other country. Good luck with that since manpower is obviously short on prosecution.

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  4. First of off I would like to start off by saying that it doesn’t surprise me that Mexican Officials would accept this bribe from Wal-Mart since bribing occurs a lot in Mexico. If you have the money you can pretty much bribe almost anyone. And I say this because I’ve seen it before with my own eyes. On another note why would Wal-Mart even feel the need to have to bribe in order to expand their business in Mexico more quickly? I strongly feel that this article is leaving a lot more information because if I remember correctly Wal-Mart was paying money in order to receive building permits so that construction could begin on this expansion of Wal-Mart to Mexico as soon as possible. So there were procedures that were not being followed in order to just get the permits fast and not have to go through the whole process that is required before you can even get a construction permit. And I am pretty certain that a lot more people knew about the bribing that was going one because how else could you expedite the permit process if you’re not dishing out a little extra this had to raise some questions. Furthermore, the CEO is conducting its own investigation, um what more can they find out then what I’m sure they were already aware off they are just trying to cover their behinds. Plus the VP of Wal-Mart said these occurred more than six years ago so it doesn’t reflect them now I just don’t see what relevance that has to what is going on who cares when it happened it happened now they have to deal with the consequences. However, according to the article the consequences don’t seem to be that big except for them having to pay fines, and executives having to depart from Wal-Mart.

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  5. It has never really made sense to me why United States corporations cannot give bribes in other countries. If the country has not made it illegal, then in that country a United States corporation should be able to give bribes. It seems to me that we are only hurting ourselves by dictating what can and cannot happen in other countries. I do not understand why it would be wrong for WalMart to spend more money in bribes to reach whatever goals they have.
    United States corporations are especially hurt when it comes to competition. Non-United States corporations can bribe foreign countries to get what they want. Sometimes that can even harm the United States corporations in that they will miss out on whatever venture they were shooting for due to lack of bribes.
    WalMart may have been stupid in the way they handed out bribes; it seems that it is possible to get away with bribery. Simply call the bribe a gift, and actually make it appear to be just a gift. Also, WalMart could have given items other than money and gotten away with it that way. I think that WalMart probably will get away with any “bribery” due to amazing lawyers who will find some kind of loophole to get them out of this mess.

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  6. Wow Wal-mart is getting into th bribery scene.This is hilarous, because everybody looks at Wal-Mart as a clean cut corporation. Everybody has shopped at Wal-Mart, they have the best deals around. Wal-Mart is a success story of they started as a mom and pop shop and expanded to and world wide organization. Wal-Mart has been known to have shady business deals. I can remeber when they wanted to put a walmart in a local neighborhood. The neighborhood did not want walmart in there community, because it would lower there property value. But Wal-Mart flexed there muscle and had the city counsel rezone the area so they could build the store. Some people would call that good business. But i call it as i see it, Wal-Mart is a bully. So it does not surprise me they are being invesigated for bribeing Mexican officals. Wal-Mart needs to be checked. But we live in a free enterprise system, the corporations that have he money can do what ever they want. I bet Wal-Mart will get away with it. No one is going to go jail so what is the point of the investigation? At the most they will only get a fine. Another waste of tax payers money.

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  7. This is a perfect example of white corporate crime. Anyone can clearly see that this is a crime being committed by a major company. Wallmarts CEO say that these allegations are not true and made up. However, how anyone can denied the facts that wallmart was paying Mexican officials money to increase their production of building additional wallmarts throughout a particular area in Mexico. As American taxpayers, you want to know how big corporations and companies are spending our money.

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  8. Walmart is not the first corporation to have "allegedly" committed bribery. Many corporation, lobbies, financial institutions do it every day. The question becomes can you catch them? Or does the government kindly look the other direction when it benefits them? I think Walmart saw an opportunity here and so they took it and I say good for them. The majority are constantly saying that no one buys American that we constantly ship our jobs overseas, that we are tired of people illegally coming here to take our jobs. Well I see this as an opportunity to solve all three. Walmart is an American company born right here in the USA if they can open even more stores in other countries and continue to make money as an American business I say great more power to them. Secondly if we open a Walmart in Mexico and give many people over there jobs maybe they could make better lives for themselves there instead of coming here illegally. Finally as the corporation grows so will the jobs for our own people here. We will need to ship more goods there in order to do that Walmart will have to hire more workers to drive the trucks load the freight, buyers to buy. I say that our America says we are free so should our companies.

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  9. So in order to grow its business more quickly in Mexico, Wal-Mart supposedly bribed Mexican officials. This certainly comes as no surprise when considering the corporate motto of profits above everything else, including a US federal law that expressly forbids such unscrupulous action. Sure, Mexico is corrupt, and maybe bribery is the only way to do business there, but that doesn’t make it right, and it makes the United States look even more corrupt to a world audience that already has a poor opinion of our methods. Of course, if Wal-Mart is found guilty, the penalties will, no doubt, only be fines—once again the benefits will outweigh the risks and no executives will likely ever be held liable. As a stockholder in Wal-Mart, does one even care what Wal-Mart does as long as shares keep increasing in value? If the individual is just as concerned with ever-increasing profits as the corporation, then isn’t this a problem with society as a whole and not just the evil corporation? Where would the profit-driven Wal-Mart be without us buying its cheap goods and investing in its stock with high hopes of huge returns? But we really shouldn’t fret about any of this because Wal-Mart is doing its own in-house “aggressive investigation” into its own wrong doings, and I’m sure the findings will reveal all this hoopla is for naught.

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  10. This is to no surprise to me at all. Wal-mart has strived to become this billion dollar super giant and they don't always play fair. Even here in the United States their ethical practices are questionable. They pay their workers very little, with many times no benefits. They have bullied manufacturers of products to price their items so low the company putting out the product makes no profit or even loses money. But Wal-mart has almost monopolized the supermarket industry that companies are forced to comply with Wal-mart's demands if they want to have their items on their shelves. And unfortunately for some of these food manufacturers everyone shops at Wal-Mart. They will do whatever it takes to profit,so the bribes given to Mexican officials is indicitive of Wal-Mart and their business and ethical practices.

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  11. There has been many stories on how Wal-mart moves into town and takes over. So why would they need to bribe Mexican officials to help make there business better? Everyone shops at walmart do to their variety of products and cheap prices. Its a popular store. Granite every big company has cheated a little to get to where they are but that doesnt change that walmart is still a power house in the supermarket industry.

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  12. Even if what they say is happening occured only 6 years ago, The FCPA was put into effect in '77, and I may not be a math genius, but I THINK that was more than 6 years ago, leaving Wal Mart still at fault here. It would have made sense if The FCPA was put into effect only like 4 years ago, but no, Wal Mart STILL admitted that the alleged activities were six years old, which begs the question of after all this time, is there still no solid evidence of Wal Mart paying off foreign officials to increase its business? Sure if the allegations turned out to be true, it may not reflect what Wal Mart as a company stands for, but it will still be a stain on their record as a legitimate business.

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  13. I don't condone what Wal-mart did if they did it, but how is it any different than what any other corporation tries to do to achieve the biggest profit they can. As a matter a fact it isn't any different than certain areas who have coaches that bribe incoming high school, or incoming college athletes to choose their school over another. Bottom line is its all in the name of money, power, and stature. Wal-mart isn't any less guilty that Halliburton or BP. They are all the same. Greedy, power hungry executives that are trying to make the biggest profit at any and all cost.

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  14. Truly I can say that im not surprised that this happen, a lot of companies commit these petty crimes most corporate crimes occurred for money and more money gain. But like every other story the rich are trying to be richer and greed is the central theme to all of this. And personally I feel that even if Wal-Mart is found guilty of these supposed crime nothing will even happen Wal-Mart will get a nice looking fine but in reality what is a million or billion dollar fine to a multi-billion dollar company so life will go on for Wal-Mart and everything will be normal. The life of a American company things are so twisted.

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  15. Wal-Mart is a multi-billion dollar company, and like most big companies they are just after more and more money. So it really does not surprise me that they are trying to pay off and bribe Mexican officials with millions of dollars to grow their business much faster. Wal-Mart is just greedy everyone shops at Wal-Mart and invests because of how cheap everything is sold for, so there really isn’t for all this. The Foreign Corrupt Policies Act strictly prohibits paying off foreign officials for a reason. Wal-Mart admits to doing these things six years ago and thinks that the FCPA does not apply to them, “If these allegations are true, it is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for.” Sorry Wal-Mart that is not how the law works. Unfortunately Wal-Mart is just like any business that commits corporate crimes. They have so much money that the law has a hard time touching them. It also does not help that they are running their own “aggressive investigation.” I am sure they will find exactly what they need to find to make all this go away, nothing. Even if they do get caught they know the only thing that is going to happen to them is a slap on the wrist with a fine. But what is a million or billion dollars to a multi-billion dollar industry. Who wouldn’t take that risk?

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  16. so walmart will have to pay a couple million dollars as a fine but what is a couple million dollars to a multi- billion dollar company? why are ceo's worried about faster building in mexico? they should be worried about here in the U.S. cleaning up the stores they already have built. Walmart is starting to be known as "trashy". why are our tax dollars going towards production in other countries? we need to worry about building things here at home before going to other countries. just shows how the rich get richer and they don't care how they have to do make their money.

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  17. In comparison to the billions of dollars they make in a year I highly doubt any legal payments/fines they have to make will not come anywhere close to hurting their partially illegal pockets. The money they make from the Mexico stores probaly out rank the penalties they have for doing what they did there.

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  18. This is crazy. WalMart is like one of the top grossing billion dollar businesses. With all the constant income, one would think why be greedy. I guess money doesn't solve all your problems. Wal mart shouldn't take when they already have more than enough.

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  19. Growing of business is a common thing in the U.S. everyong that has money always wants more, even if they have to break the law to get it. Walmart is deffinatly in the wrong by paying off mexican officals to grow the company. What i do not understand is why one of the biggest and most wealthy companies in the world would have trouble doing business the right way. The thing that bothers me the most is even through the investigation i feel that nothing legal will be brought upon the Walmart party except maybe a slap on this wrist and a fine that would be pocket change for the executives.

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  20. I understand that businesses try to grow to get their names out their name out there so they can make money. Wal-Mart is a well franchise, for them to pay Mexican officials to grow their business is sad. Wal-Mart has experienced bad publicity in the past for their operating methods. As well known as Wal-Mart is they shouldn’t have to pay officials to grow their business. When Wal-Mart was established there were some guidelines on how they should operate. These guidelines were established to make sure they the way they operate was ethically and morally sound. I think Wal-Mart should review those guidelines because obviously they have forgotten them.

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  21. I agree with Ryan, when he stated “a lot of companies commit these petty crimes” for substantial profit gain. It also should come to no surprise that Walmart has also committed this crime. If convicted, like most major corporations, they will probably get a slap on the wrist. This crime was allegedly committed 6 years ago, I’m pretty sure Walmart has made more than enough money to pay the fine if found guilty.

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  22. Walmart and other businesses are always doing wrongful acts. This is just another example of something the Walmart Company has done wrong. I believe Walmart will either get a fine, or get away with it. I do not think Walmart will be that harmed by the charges. Also, it doesn’t matter if it happened 6 years ago, it still reflect son the company. Walmart is just as greedy as BP and won’t let a little fine or anything stop them from making more profits. They will probably find a way around this. Also, Walmart has money; therefore they will just find a way to buy itself out of trouble. The rich get richer, and the poor get prison. Plain and simple.

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  23. Walmart already has a low position in society, in that i mean, whoever said the freaks come out at night, has obviously never been to walmart during the day. Walmart pays people a fraction of what they should earn, under the table, just because they can and because people are desperate. I know lots of people who refuse to shop at walmart just to stand up for what they know is wrong. But like people have already said, walmart has money, and they'll most likey be able to buy themselves out of this one, just like all the other celebrities and companies do. Money is power, sad but true.

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  24. If this were found to be true this would be a big blow to one of America’s biggest businesses. Sadly though, the government won’t punish Wal-Mart as harshly as they need to be punished. Which is why we will continue to see companies and businesses break the law until the government cracks down and becomes strict on these businesses and companies. Also Wal-Mart is not the only company to be paying foreign officials in order to grow their business there more quickly. I guarantee most international companies have done the same thing if not something similar and just haven’t gotten caught. When it comes to stopping corporate crime our criminal justice system is a joke. Our government will fine them slap on some other punishments that barely even effect the company, and then once the government turns their back the company does the same illegal thing that they were just fined for. The government’s punishments simply are not strict enough to even prevent companies and businesses from doing illegal activity. I’m not saying I want people to fear our government but I am saying that business and companies should fear the repercussions of getting caught doing illegal activity.

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  25. Walmart is not worried about any fines, this company generates more money than some small countries. They'll pay whatever they have to pay and do so gladly, then go right back to doing business as usual. It's called CAPITALISM.

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  26. I am not surprised that Wal-mart is under investigation for bribery. The truth is that wal-mart has and will always be about making money. Wal-mart for decades comes to small American towns and destorys the local economy by building super stores with price that can not be beat by smaller businesses. The success of wal-mart is due to the death of the small businesses they crush. I hope that wal-mart is fined very heavy for it's illegal activity, Wal-mart can certainly afford it.

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  27. I am just going to start off and say that I hate Wal*Mart anyway, so please, let them get in trouble. Why would they want to grow their business faster when they are more than well off with profits? I'm sure that they know federal laws due to the size of their business and have been trying to hide all of their illegal activities because they have the money to pay the right people to turn the other way? Its disgusting corruption. And really sketchy in the late hours of the night too...but that is besides the point. Regardless of when the allegations were, it still happened in the first place when it shouldn't have and it is illegal.

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  28. I don’t think that this is true first of all. As much as corporate crimes occur, Walmart is a business that would easily be discovered of doing something of this magnitude. I also don’t understand why they would do something like this since they already have several businesses in Mexico including a Sam’s Club which is part of Walmart. Even though Mexico is going through a rough time with its drug war, I wouldn’t find it difficult for them to accept such a large amount of money to just let a business set up shop in their cities as it would actually help them. I am also sure that part of them growing faster isn’t really a big issue since they are already a large corporation. Business is business and I am sure that they will do whatever they need to do to make sure their business continues to succeed like it always has.

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  29. I believe that this story is so true, but I can’t understand as to why. This is just goes to show how greedy corporations are. Wal-Mart is considered as a multibillion dollar company, which amazes me as to why they would make such a deal. If this company ends up being sued, I wonder what will happen to all of its employees and all the profits that were made during the process. I also wonder if Sam Walton had his hands in on this or was it done on a lower level. I guess the truth of the matter is, we will never what happened behind closed doors, but if Wal-Mart is found guilty, there will be some type of settlement outside of court and they will probably be issued a fine. I think this is hilarious, because it’s just another sad case of corruption in the U.S.

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