Lawyers for Walmart have identified Brazil, India, China and South Africa along with Mexico as areas having the biggest risk for corruption, according to a letter from two congressmen who are doing their own investigation into the allegations of bribery in its Mexico operations.
The letter, sent this week, shed light on a May 21 briefing with outside lawyers from Walmart, who said they had been retained to do a global anti-corruption compliance review of its operations in 2011, an AP news release reports.
The attorneys from the law firms Greenberg Traurig and Akin Gump said the review focused on...
Walmart said it is "probable" that the world's largest retailer will incur a loss due to ongoing bribery investigations by itself and government agencies, but it says it is too early to speculate on the size of the damage. The company said it does not currently expect the loss to be material. The statements came in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
Walmart has been dealing with allegations that surfaced last April that it failed to notify law enforcement that company officials authorized millions of dollars in payments in Mexico to speed up getting building permits...
The Wall Street Journal will merge its "Money and Investing" team with the Dow Jones Newswires financial markets team over the next few weeks. "Money and Investing" editor Francesco Guerrera (francesco.guerrera@wsj.com) will oversee the combined team in his new role as financial editor.
Business Insider promotes deputy editor Joe Weisenthal (jweisenthal@businessinsider.com) to executive editor, a new position.
Walmart is making a pledge to hire every recently discharged veteran who wants a job. The plan was announced this week as part of an address delivered at the annual retail industry convention by Bill Simon, president and CEO of Wal-Mart's namesake U.S. business, an AP news release reports.
The retail giant says it projects it will hire more than 100,000 veterans in the next five years. Honorably discharged veterans will have a "place to go", said Walmart's Simon, according to prepared text supplied by the company. The hiring pledge, which will begin on Memorial Day, covers veterans within 12...
Boeing's 787, the new jetliner that is supposed to revolutionize air travel, ran into some behavioral (and PR-oriented) obstacles this week when one plane caught fire, and another suffered a fuel leak, suggesting some design flaws that the company must tackle. But these problems are just the latest in a string of systematic shortfalls — the 787 was delayed for three years, so Boeing's investors and customers notice each time one has a problem. Boeing asserts such growing pains are typical for new models, but this week's mounting PR crisis may not be too comforting for carriers that will be shelling out $...
A PR to-do erupted last spring when reports that Wal-Mart de Mexico bribed foreign officials surfaced — but now, U.S. lawmakers say top Walmart executives have known about these allegations since 2005. Congressmen Elijah E. Cummings, and Henry Waxman, Democrats from Maryland and California, respectively, announced this week that they had documents confirming that Walmart CEO Michael Duke and other high-ranking personnel were personally informed about the bribery allegations as early as October 2005, CNNMoney reports.
The congressmen specifically cite...
Retailers that sell guns are under mounting pressure from this week's increasingly vocal outcry against assault rifles. Large stores like Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods are responding by either suspending sales or pulling ads of semiautomatic rifles, even though some smaller stores aren't budging.
Dick's said it has suspended the sale of certain semiautomatic rifles from its 511 stores in 44 states "out of respect for the victims and their families," and has also said in a statement that it has removed all guns from its store near Newtown, but did not say how long the suspension will...
Bank of America is not feeling the PR love these days, and the new American Customer Satisfaction Index certainly isn't going to cheer them up. According to the Index, updated this week, customers last year were not pleased with the bank and its many fees, giving the institution its lowest satisfaction score since 2000. The score of 66 on a scale of 100 is 3% lower than the bank's tally in 2010. The company now trails all of its major banking rivals and is the only institution with a grade that's lower than its pre-recession level. It's also the least popular bank for the fourth year in a row, the LA...
As scrutiny continues over allegations of bribery in its Mexico subsidiary, Walmart has filled some key positions aimed at strengthening the discount giant's commitment to ethical and compliance standards, including the hiring of a global chief compliance officer and streamlined ethics and compliance department.
On the heels of a NY Times report in April that company officials at its Mexico operations routinely used bribery to smooth the way for expansion — which kickstarted an internal PR crisis situation for the company that soon gained B2C traction — Walmart continues to face investigations by the ...
IBM has been recognized for the second consecutive year as the greenest company in the U.S., according to the Newsweek 2012 Green Rankings survey, released this week. A panel of independent judges ranked major companies based on numerous criteria, including their environmental impact, environmental management and sustainability disclosure. The survey is regarded as one of the most comprehensive analyses of environmental leadership, and IBM was one of 500 large U.S. organizations evaluated.
The report notes that IBM'S Smarter Planet products and services help clients measure and reduce their resource...
