Mexico Facing Cost of Bribe Ethos That Snared Wal-Mart
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Tyson Foods Inc. was searching for a way to speed up Mexican approval to export chickens raised in that country in the mid-2000s. Company employees, Tyson later acknowledged to U.S. authorities, achieved this by paying off local officials.
The decision ended in Tyson, the largest U.S. meat processor, paying regulators $5.2 million last year. Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, made a more expensive mistake, paying $1.6 billion in fines and criminal and civil penalties in 2008 for violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in markets including Mexico.