NYC Comptroller Seeks Probe of Wal-Mart Spy Allegations

The New York City Comptroller, William C. Thompson, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Justice Department to investigate whether Wal-Mart illegally spied on its shareholders. The New York City Comptroller's office controls nearly $400 million worth of Wal-Mart shares through government pension funds. Mr Thompson claims that Wal-Mart targeted his office for surveillance after it submitted a shareholder proposal asking Wal-Mart to abide by a code of conduct that would govern its operations in Northern Ireland. This allegation comes after a fired Wal-Mart security executive asserted that Wal-Mart had been conducting surveillance operations on employees, critics, suppliers, consultants, and shareholders expected to oppose some of the company's policies at its annual meeting of shareholders (AGM). Wal-Mart has denied the allegations. At least three investor groups are demanding a formal apology from Wal-Mart and copies of any material collected about them and Wal-Mart's critics have also called for an investigation of the alleged surveillance activities. Wal-Mart did confirm the existence of a January 2007 memo written by an unnamed Wal-Mart official asking an internal security team to research certain shareholders in preparation for its June 1st AGM. A Wal-Mart spokesperson explained that these actions would have been merely a review of "potential areas of concern", and any review would have been conducted "mainly using the Internet and other public sources to obtain background information." In a letter that Wal-Mart faxed to its shareholders, Wal-Mart claims that the request in the January 2007 memo to research certain shareholders was not acted upon. In this letter Wal-Mart admits to conducting background research on persons or organizations, including supporters of shareholder proposals. Wal-Mart claims that information gathered would have come from publicly available sources. For more information, see: http://tinyurl.com/28dboz; and http://www.retailnet.com/story.cfm?ID=36732 Summary by: Andrei Edwards