Washington (AFP)

The US retail giant Walmart, which experienced an international boom in the 2000s, was fined more than $ 282 million to file corruption charges by its overseas subsidiaries .

After a seven-year investigation that the group voluntarily collaborated on, the Stock Exchange Constable (SEC) and the US Department of Justice announced the bill on Thursday: Walmart agreed to pay $ 144 million for SEC prosecutions and $ 138 million for the Department of Justice investigation.

The group was accused of letting its subsidiaries - especially in Brazil but also China, India and Mexico - use third parties who paid local authorities to facilitate their establishment.

"Walmart took advantage of its rapid international expansion but in doing so, the group chose to ignore anti-corruption measures," Deputy Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in a statement.

"For more than a decade, Walmart has experienced exponential international growth but has failed to provide safeguards against corruption risks in many countries," added Zachary Terwilliger, federal prosecutor in Virginia.

The discount store giant in the United States, which generated $ 515 billion in revenue over its last fiscal year, operates 11,300 stores under different banners in 27 countries. It is also one of the largest private employers in the world with 2.2 million employees.

The authorities accused him of failing to implement anti-corruption measures as required by US law against corrupt practices abroad, the SEC said, "ignoring the shortcomings in the law and delaying set up accounting controls that would have avoided many problems. "

- Travel and gifts -

From 2000 to 2011, donations, gifts, travel and bribes allowed Walmart "to store additional profits through these foreign affiliates by opening stores more quickly," said the Justice Department.

In Mexico, a former lawyer in the group's subsidiary admitted in 2005 that he had overseen for several years a system of paying bribes to representatives of local authorities to obtain permits and operating licenses.

This scheme was known to the managers of the subsidiary. The company's accounts even identified, by codes, the reasons for these payments made either to "avoid obligations", "to influence" a local manager or "eliminate" the payment of duties.

In India, from 2009 to 2011, amounts paid to intermediaries and recorded in the accounts as "miscellaneous expenses" or "professional fees", were used to obtain permits for the opening of stores.

In Brazil, the subsidiary Walmart Brazil indirectly hired an intermediary whose ability to quickly obtain the necessary permits for the construction of stores earned him, within the subsidiary, the nicknames of "the witch" or "genius".

In China, several shortcomings in anti-corruption practices were identified between 2003 and 2011, according to the summary provided by the Ministry of Justice.

Asked by AFP, Walmart said he would pay the exact amount of $ 282.7 million for "this conduct that occurred several years ago," which "puts an end to more than seven years of investigation."

By the end of 2017, the group in Bentonville, Arkansas, which collaborated in the investigation, had funded this amount, which will not affect its financial results this year, he said.

? 2019 AFP