Anti-Wal-Mart groups use bribery charges to their benefit

— -- Anti-Wal-Mart groups in New York City on Tuesday called for an investigation into the retailer's U.S. expansion tactics after allegations the company bribed Mexican officials and covered it up while growing its largest foreign subsidiary.

Walmart Free NYC, which has been fighting Wal-Mart's plan to enter New York City since 2005, has garnered new support across the city's five boroughs in the days since The New York Times reported the Wal-Mart bribery and coverup allegations, says coalition director Stephanie Yazgi. There are no Wal-Mart stores in the city.

Renewed tension over planned New York City store openings come as Wal-Mart is the focus of a Justice Department criminal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it a crime for American corporations and their subsidiaries to bribe foreign officials. TheWashington Post reported the probe Tuesday. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., are opening an investigation into the matter, which Waxman said Tuesday looks "quite egregious."

Prosecuting companies and their executives for violating the anti-bribery law has been a Justice Department priority in recent years, says Dorsey & Whitney attorney Thomas Gorman, an expert on the law. Albert Stanley, the former CEO of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, was sentenced in February to 2½ years in prison for a bribery scheme.

Some New York City officials, along with Walmart Free NYC and retail union members, demanded Wal-Mart halt its expansion plans into the city and called for an independent probe into the retailer's New York development plans at a city hall press conference Tuesday. The allegations show "the values that Wal-Mart has are not the values that match folks in New York City," Yazgi says.

Wal-Mart announced Tuesday it has created a new position to make sure it is in compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Spokesman David Tovar emphasized the allegations were 6 years old and noted the company launched an investigation of them six months ago.

"We will not tolerate non-compliance with FCPA anywhere or at any level of the company," Tovar said. .

Wal-Mart has also faced backlash in other urban areas it's been trying to break into, including Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. The new charges, which Gorman called a blow to "the image that they've been trying to create that they are a very ethical … corporate citizen," could give critics more ammunition.

"Allegations of widespread corruption and a coverup that apparently traces up the corporate ladder really raise a fundamental issue about the corporate culture," Gorman says.