A senior Wal-Mart executive fired for breaching ethics policies has turned the tables on her former employer and accused the chief executive, Lee Scott, of doing the same thing.
In a lawsuit made public on Saturday, the former marketing chief, Julie Roehm, accused Scott and other executives of accepting gifts and discounts on items such as yachts and diamonds from suppliers and other businesses.
latest blow
The suit was the latest damaging blow to Wal-Mart's public image. The retail chain has struggled over labor relations and faced opposition from businesses and community groups who claim it crushes smaller firms.
For a company that prides itself on the homespun ethics of its founder, Sam Walton, Wal-Mart also found itself embarrassingly embroiled in another scandal last year when its former vice-chairman, Thomas Coughlin, admitted fiddling his expenses to buy almost US$500,000 worth of goods.
Roehm was fired in December amid claims she had accepted gifts from an advertising agency that she later hired. She was also accused of misusing a company travel fund to pay for trips with a colleague, with whom she was alleged to have been romantically involved.
In court papers filed in Detroit, Michigan, Roehm said Scott had received "preferential prices" on yachts and a "large pink diamond for his wife" through his relationship with businessman Irwin Jacobs. Jacobs' company has a deal to buy unsold Wal-Mart merchandise. Scott's son Eric has worked for Jacobs for a number of years. Roehm also claimed that Scott accepted travel on Jacobs' private aircraft.
eagles in spain
In other allegations, Roehm said Wal-Mart vice president of marketing John Fleming and others had accepted US$300 tickets and backstage passes to an Eagles concert during a meeting with suppliers in Spain.
"Many Wal-Mart executives do not abide by Wal-Mart's alleged firm policy forbidding conflicts of interest," she said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2