Imagine yourself sitting in the corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., in 2005. You have recently been promoted to head your company’s international operations. On your desk you have a series of reports, made by a former Wal-Mart in-house counsel, of an alleged bribery scheme at your company’s operations in Mexico. One of the emails concerning the matter ends with "PS: Welcome to Wal-Mart international" [PDF].
This appears to be the situation in late 2005 faced by Mike Duke, who now serves as CEO of Wal-Mart. Sergio Cicero Zapata, a former in-house counsel for Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex) dismissed after 28 years of service, had recently met with Wal-Mart’s external counsel and alleged that bribes were paid to Mexican officials to expedite the company’s expansion in Mexico. Internal Wal-Mart emails and memos detailing Zapata’s allegations were recently made public as a result of a congressional investigation into the company. These documents offer a rare glimpse inside a company’s internal communications as a potential U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) issue unfolds.
