Everyone’s problem: Looking Beyond the Wal-Mart Bribery Case.

The article that I choose to write about is Everyone’s problem: Looking Beyond the Wal-Mart Bribery Case. The article it is about Wal-Mart being accused of committing bribery giving illegal payment of money to Mexico’s top officials. The reason that is stated is the company is trying to by pass the slow process that Mexico has in place of getting the paper work done. They are able to fast track the opening of new Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart, which is a U.S., owned company has had evidence brought against them from the U.S. government stating that they have made 24 million dollars worth of illegal payment to Mexican officials in order to skip the legal process that it takes to open up a store in the country of Mexico. Wal-Mart has also been accused of knowing that the allegations where going to come to light soon, So Senior executive started to sell off large sums of Wal-Mart stock before the allegations reached the public, Which some view that as insider trading. The article also touched on the fact that in many other countries in the world are known to take bribes to fast track the process of opening businesses in their country. It is stated that it is part of the countries business culture.

The muti-national aspect of this article is that Wal- Mart is a U.S. owned company and are subject to comply with U.S. Laws when it comes to business despite what is considered the culture in the foreign country that they are operating in. Also the act of insider trading can affect other countries stock market. When one market notices uncertainty in another market it tends to reflect in the days trading in all markets.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/everyones-problem-looking-beyond-the-wal-mart-bribery-case/

Questions

Is it truly unethical to pay the Mexican officials to fast track paper work to get a store open within a timely manner when all the other companies do it, when it is looked upon as part of the Mexican business culture to pay these officials?

What is being done to stop the officials of these other countries from openly accepting these bribes in exchange for expedited paper work?

Will the senior executives be charged for insider trading?

Citation

Everyone’s Problem: Looking Beyond the Wal-Mart Bribery Case. Knowledge@Wharton (2012, May 09). Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/everyones-problem-looking-beyond-the-wal-mart-bribery-case/