Small Pension Fund Takes on Big Role

Posted on September 19, 2012 by jway

In classic David vs. Goliath fashion, the Indiana Electrical Workers Pension Trust Fund IBEW is suing Walmart over the cover up of the alleged bribery of Mexican officials earlier this year.  The small pension fund holds only 750,000 worth of Walmart Stores’ $253 billion in stock, but thanks to whistleblower documents mailed to the organization’s attorney and its approach to obtaining information about Walmart’s internal probe of the bribery allegations, IBEW may be key to a successful suit against the company.

According to Delaware law, “shareholders are entitled to inspect certain non-confidential books and records.” On this basis, IBEW requested that Walmart turn over information that could help to uncover whether or not executives stifled an internal probe of the alleged bribery of public officials in Mexico. This valuable information may reveal more about the possible failure of Walmart’s directors to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.

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