TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Global retail giant Walmart has agreed to pay over $ 282 million to settle charges of violating US anti-corruption regulations while conducting its business in India, China, Brazil and Mexico. According to the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), these violations were conducted by Walmart’s third-party intermediaries who made payments to foreign government officials without reasonable assurances that they complied with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or FCPA.
The SEC has charged Walmart with violating the FCPA by failing to operate a sufficient anti-corruption compliance programme for more than a decade as the retailer experienced rapid international growth. The SEC brought the charges against Walmart in 2011.
Walmart agreed to pay more than $ 144 million to settle the SEC’s charges and approximately $ 138 million to resolve parallel criminal charges by the Department of Justice for a combined total of more than $ 282 million, SEC said. “Walmart valued international growth and cost-cutting over compliance,” said Charles Cain, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s FCPA Unit.
