WMT Walmart Inc

By Kathryn Hardison

The Federal Trade Commission has sued Walmart Inc. for allegedly allowing fraudsters to use its money transferring services to take hundreds of millions of dollars from customers.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the FTC alleges that Walmart has turned a blind eye to the activity for years. An FTC investigation found the company didn't properly train employees and failed to warn customers of the scams.

The FTC is asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and impose civil penalties.

Walmart said in a statement Tuesday the FTC's lawsuit is "factually flawed and legally baseless."

From 2013 to 2018, more than $197 million in payments tied to fraud complaints were sent or received at Walmart, based on information from fraud databases maintained by MoneyGram, Western Union, and Ria, according to the complaint. More than $1.3 billion in related payments may also be connected to the fraud.

Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's bureau of consumer protection, said in prepared remarks that Walmart "pocketed millions in fees" from the fradulent transactions.

Walmart shares is up 0.2% to $122.65 in after-hours trading.

Write to Kathryn Hardison at kathryn.hardison@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 28, 2022 17:09 ET (21:09 GMT)

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