Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Tuesday it spent $30 million on FCPA-related costs in its third quarter, with $22 million for ongoing investigations and $8 million for enhancements to its global compliance program.
During the same quarter last year, FCPA and compliance-related costs were about $41 million.
So far in the current fiscal year, Walmart has spent about $73 million on FCPA issues.
That brings overall FCPA-related spending for the past three years to $685 million.
The disclosures came in an earnings call (pdf) Tuesday.
In 2012, the New York Times alleged that in Mexico, Walmart paid $24 million in bribes to public officials.
Last month the Wall Street Journal reported that a three-year investigation by the DOJ and SEC found little or no evidence of large-scale bribery.
The Wall Street Journal said it spoke to multiple sources at the DOJ. The federal investigation and Walmart’s own internal probe found evidence of bribery only in India, the WSJ said, and then only relatively small payments, mostly under $200 each.
The federal and internal investigations reportedly covered possible FCPA violations in Mexico, as well as in China, India, and Brazil, among others.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said for fiscal 2015 (ended January 31), FCPA-related costs were $173 million. About $121 million of that was for legal costs associated with the investigations. The remaining $52 million was spent on compliance program enhancements.
The company’s third quarter net income for this fiscal year was $3.3 billion, compared with $3.7 billion for the same period last year.
Total Q3 revenues were $117.4 billion, compared with $119 billion during the third fiscal quarter a year ago.
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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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