Wal-Mart Dodges Claims Over Mexican Bribery Scheme

Shareholders sued Wal-Mart and its board of directors in April 2012 after a newspaper’s investigative report detailed an alleged bribery scheme involving Wal-Mart’s Mexico subsidiary and Mexican government officials. The news report suggested that Wal-Mart had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by handing out bribes to facilitate Mexican real estate deals. It also criticized the sufficiency of Wal-Mart management’s response to the situation. In March 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas dismissed the claims on the ground that the shareholders didn’t make a presuit demand or establish that doing so would have been futile.