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I've been reading about this, and while it is probably very awkward and embarrassing for Walmart, this same thing could have happened to Target, or any of those other places. That's because the bribery was being perpetrated by Mexican employees and officials. There's no smoking gun linking any of this to a single American. So I dunno...

OK, I do know. Once you find out about something like this, you can no longer distance yourself from it if you cover it up. I think Walmart has decided not to cover it up. What isn't clear is whether that had ALWAYS been the game plan.

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

I can't imagine Wal-Mart or anybody else getting permits to build hundreds of stores in Mexico without paying lots of bribes. This has practically been a way of life in Mexico for over a century.

If anything, the climate of corruption had been improving dramatically in Mexico in the 1990s. That was before the drug war became a total war.

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Not all those who wander are lost.

I've known folks who have negotiated agreements overseas. They have all said without bribes the government officials overseas don't do anything.

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I am a stranger in a wicked and adulterous land. I look forward to returning home one day.

But Marcus and Strider, I don't think Americans were involved in this bribery (although American companies have certainly used bribes elsewhere). I read several stories very carefully, and it appears to have been Mexican employees and officials (at least in what we know so far).

However, as commentators have said, Walmart appears to have broken both American and Mexican law. That's awkward and embarrassing. I just think that domestic, corporate involvement in the corruption was much more passive than would be typical, because it was the Mexican arm of Walmart.

I will take back what I said once the bribe money has been traced back to Benton, Arkansas. Because I just thought of that -- where in tarnation did that bribe money come from? Oops.

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

I'm not saying that. I am saying that bribery is rampant across the global, especially in 2nd and 3rd world countries.

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I am a stranger in a wicked and adulterous land. I look forward to returning home one day.

Well, I'm not going to attempt to defend Walmart anymore. They need to find the source of that bribe money.

_________________
Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

I agree with Marcus. Although my previous reply focussed on bribery in Mexico, the same is true across much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. You want to get anything done, you pay bribes to the appropriate officials. That is just how it works.

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Not all those who wander are lost.

I am not surprised, but if an American company has been complicit in corruption, they need to be made an example of, or corporate lawbreaking will become even more prevelant than it already appears to be (if that's even possible).

I mean, who says we have to operate in countries where corruption is the only way to do business?

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/wal-mart-took-part-in-lobbying-campaign-to-amend-anti-bribery-law/2012/04/24/gIQAyZcdfT_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE

Quoting from the link:

Wal-Mart, the giant retailer now under fire over allegations of foreign bribery in Mexico, has participated in an aggressive and high-priced lobbying campaign to amend the long-standing U.S. anti-bribery law that the company might have violated.

The push to revisit how federal authorities enforce the statute has been centered at a little-known but well-funded arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where a top executive of Wal-Mart has sat on the board of directors for nearly a decade...

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

The article concludes:

In a speech last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated that the Obama administration has no intention of allowing a scaled-down FCPA.

“We are unequivocally opposed to weakening the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” Clinton said. “We don’t need to lower our standards. We need to work with other countries to raise theirs. I actually think a race to the bottom would probably disadvantage us.”

Harvard law professor David Kennedy co-wrote a report last year on the FCPA called “Busting Bribery,” which was published by the Open Society Foundation, backed in part by liberal philanthropist George Soros. The paper denounced proposed amendments to the law.

“In the guise of clarifying,” Kennedy said, “they are gutting the law.”

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!

Agreed.

And before we look down our noses at corrupt Mexico, we should examine our own forms of bribery on broad display this election year.

indeed

of course, we all can agree that both entities should cease & desist with da bribes

I wasn't looking down my nose at Mexico; I was looking down it at WM.

-Dan.

It's embarrassing, and it isn't hard to believe that they didn't INTEND to go down this road. Someone was naive, and other people did things without keeping the naive people informed. Then when the naive people found out, they panicked and tried to cover it up.

That's because it is clear that if Mexico is THAT corrupt, then everyone would have known why it was that Walmart would be able to expand there. Walmart would have had a perpetual sign hanging around their necks, which would have said "Violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" on it. Somebody didn't think this through. Usually the people at the very top, are much better at thinking things through.

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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!