Walmart Sued Over Bribery By CalSTRS

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) sued Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) because the world’s largest retailer may have violated Mexican and US laws. At issue is the bribery, or alleged bribery scandal, at Wal-Mart’s Mexico operations. “By utilizing the derivative action, CalSTRS is seeking to remedy the damages sustained by Wal-Mart as a result of alleged gross misconduct by Wal-Mart’s executive officers and directors,” CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes said in the statement.

The trouble with the suit may be that nothing has been proven about Wal-Mart’s conduct in Mexico. The New York Times made a very compelling report about the behavior of senior management in light of events in Mexico. It could be some time before the paper’s story is completely vetted. Nonetheless, the CalSTRS action will open the door to more suits by institutional investors and maybe individual ones.

Wal-Mart’s legal costs will rise even more than they would have just to be involved in internal investigations and those which will be made by the US and Mexican governments.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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