Walmart’s CEO is getting more heat from Washington over the retail giant’s Mexican bribery scandal.
Two US Congressmen yesterday said they have e-mails showing Walmart CEO Mike Duke was aware of bribery allegations as far back as 2005. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said the e-mails contradict statements by Walmart last month that Duke wasn’t part of the cover-up.
Yesterday, Walmart officials said they didn’t dispute that Duke had known of bribery allegations in 2005, and insisted their previous denials referred to bribery charges in 2004.
A November 2005 e-mail from a top Walmart lawyer to Duke, who was CEO of international operations at the time, contained disturbing details about bribes to Mexican officials as Walmart pushed to open a store near historic pyramids in Teotihuacan.
In addition to local city council members, Walmart bribed the director of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History with “an irregular gift of $400,000,” according to the e-mail sent to Duke by Maritza Munich, general counsel of Walmart’s international division.
Yesterday, the Democratic Congressmen said investigators have been seeking access to Munich since June, but Walmart has been no help.
“It would be a serious matter if the CEO of one of our nation’s largest companies failed to address allegations of a bribery scheme,” Cummings and Waxman wrote.
Walmart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the e-mail circulated yesterday had “no new information” and that the company has “already provided committee staff with multiple briefings” amid the investigation.
The Congressmen launched their probe last April after the New York Times exposed the allegations. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Committee also are investigating the scandal.