Washington, DC- Today, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings and Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman sent a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke after an examination of hundreds of internal documents relating to the Wal-Mart bribery allegations.
The documents confirm that former Wal-Mart general counsel Maritza Munich had urged that Wal-Mart hire an independent outside counsel to conduct a closer examination of allegations of improper activity and that Ms. Munich pushed Wal-Mart executives to implement a strict anticorruption policy. They also indicate that after Ms. Munich reviewed a draft report of Wal-Mart’s actions in Mexico, she recommended via email that “the needed follow-up investigation should extend beyond the specific transactions contained in this draft report to other potentially suspect transactions not yet identified."
Ms. Munich resigned from Wal-Mart effective Feb. 1, 2006, and three months later, her replacement Alberto Mora concluded Wal-Mart’s internal investigation on the transactions in Mexico without further action.
The members are requesting that Wal-Mart authorize Ms. Munich to cooperate with our investigation and speak to committee staff.
The members are requesting that Wal-Mart provide them with the substantive briefing they requested in their initial April 23 letter. To date, Wal-Mart has offered to brief the committee on its general Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance policy, but has yet to commit to provide a briefing on the specific allegations of bribery in Mexico.
The full text of the letter is available online here.
