Walmart Compliance Chief to Depart
April 13 2021 - 3:57PM
Dow Jones News
By Dylan Tokar
Walmart Inc. is searching for a new chief ethics and compliance
officer as Daniel Trujillo -- who for the past two years led the
retail giant's global compliance program -- prepares to leave the
company.
Mr. Trujillo, will depart the Bentonville, Ark., company on
Friday, according to an internal memo shared with The Wall Street
Journal.
Walmart has yet to identify a replacement for Mr. Trujillo, a
company spokeswoman said. His departure was reported earlier by
Law360, a legal trade publication.
"Under Daniel's leadership, we expanded our talent around the
world and implemented comprehensive policies, processes, and
systems to manage compliance risks associated with a broad range of
subject matters," Rachel Brand, Walmart's chief legal officer, said
in the memo.
Information on what Mr. Trujillo plans to do next wasn't
provided. He didn't immediately respond to a message seeking
comment.
Mr. Trujillo joined the company in 2012 as a senior vice
president and international chief compliance officer. He was
promoted to executive vice president and global chief ethics and
compliance officer in 2019.
Before joining Walmart, Mr. Trujillo spent more than 15 years in
various legal and compliance positions at the Houston-based
oil-field services firm Schlumberger Ltd.
Mr. Trujillo's time in Walmart's compliance department coincided
with long-running investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into allegations of bribery
in Mexico and elsewhere.
The company in 2019 agreed to pay $282 million to resolve the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations. The company also
spent heavily to strengthen its compliance program, accruing more
than $900 million in costs for compliance enhancements and internal
investigations by the time of the settlement.
After the FCPA settlements, Mr. Trujillo worked to support an
independent compliance monitor who was assigned by the Justice
Department to oversee its compliance reforms, Walmart said.
Walmart's monitor, former Federal Bureau of Investigation
Director Louis Freeh, is scheduled to end his two-year term
overseeing the company this year, unless prosecutors ask for an
extension.
The company is currently facing a lawsuit by federal prosecutors
over its compliance with the Controlled Substances Act. In a
complaint filed in December, prosecutors alleged that the company
helped fuel the nation's opioid crisis by inadequately screening
for questionable prescriptions despite repeated warnings from its
own pharmacists.
Walmart has attacked the complaint, saying in a public filing
that the lawsuit "invents a legal theory that unlawfully forces
pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors, and is
riddled with factual inaccuracies and cherry-picked documents taken
out of context."
Before the government filed its lawsuit, the company last year
pre-emptively sued the Justice Department to fight the allegations.
Walmart in its lawsuit accused the Justice Department and Drug
Enforcement Administration of attempting to scapegoat the company
for what it says are the federal government's own regulatory and
enforcement shortcomings.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 13, 2021 15:42 ET (19:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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