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Walmart de Mexico, via News Daily
This weekend's giant Walmart scandal takes us out of America's box-store loving suburbs and to our neighbors to the south: Mexico! The region has been Walmart's fastest growing sector and one which the company has championed as the model for international growth. But now, thanks to a front-page story in Sunday's New York Times, the world knows how the company spread so fast: with copious amounts of bribes doled out to any public figure who would speed the process along, apparently. The Times story follows a trail of "he bribed, she bribed" accusations, which launched a series of internal audits and investigations six or seven years ago and ultimately resulted in zero action on the part of Walmart HQ. Sound a little heady for Monday morning? After the jump, we break it down for you by the numbers.
1. Number of Walmarts in Mexico: 2,099 (or one fifth of all Walmarts everywhere)
2. The amount of money in dollars supposedly paid in bribes: $24 million
3. Number of Walmart de Mexico execs in on it: Like, all of them
4. Number of Walmart HQ execs who were briefed on the infractions back in 2005: Officially five
5. Number of "special" (in-house) investigators dispatched to evaluate the allegations at the time: Four
6. Number of people fired based on their findings: Zero
7. Number of international laws broken? Too many to count, but most glaringly: fraud, bribery, and violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
8. Number of people on either side of the border that are surprised: None