Dive Brief:

• A federal judge on Thursday said that Wal-Mart Stores CEO Douglas McMillon must answer questions in a shareholder class-action lawsuit over the company’s alleged bribery of Mexican officials, Reuters reports.

• Because he was president of Wal-Mart International at the time, McMillon​'s "direct and personal involvement" in the dealings is enough to compel him to sit for a deposition, U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey said, according to the report. Wal-Mart had resisted the idea, arguing that he didn’t have any "unique or special knowledge” of the matter, Reuters said.

• Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission had settled on a $300 million penalty that would close federal investigators’ five-year probe into the foreign bribery debacle. A request from Retail Dive to Wal-Mart for comment wasn’t immediately returned.

Dive Insight:

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly have settled on a $300 million penalty that would close federal investigators’ five-year probe into Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s foreign bribery debacle, but the headache isn't over for the retailer even if that's true.

The figure represents a week's worth of profit for the retail giant, according to Reuters. It's also well below the Obama-era settlement that was reportedly as much as $1 billion, according to the report, suggesting that the Trump administration is willing to go easier on the retail giant. In January, Wal-Mart and federal prosecutors reportedly were struggling to come to terms over a settlement, at least in part because acknowledging wrongdoing could endanger the company's ability to participate in federal programs.

For five years, the U.S. government has been investigating Wal-Mart under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits and monitors improper international dealings like bribery. Talks fell apart last fall as the Obama administration looked to wind down several white collar investigations, but government officials renewed their investigation of Wal-Mart, according to earlier press reports. 

Organizations that plead guilty to federal crimes can be blocked from winning government contracts, meaning Wal-Mart — the country’s largest grocer — could lose its access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, which accounted for some $13 billion of its sales last year.

In some areas of the world, bribing officials is an accepted practice to obtain building permits and licensing, as well as to close business deals. It’s not exactly copacetic from the perspective of the U.S. government, however, as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its Mexican division, Walmart de México, have found. U.S. investigators looking into Wal-Mart’s dealings there eventually expanded their probe elsewhere, including Brazil, India and China. Still, there are grey areas. In some countries, "gifts" are expected during business negotiations. The U.S. Department of Justice has a guide on how to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which outlaws the kind of activity that has Wal-Mart in so much hot water, while still keeping up with business gift customs. 

Wal-Mart's bribery scandal has been a thorn in the retailer's side for some time, with investigative press reports (a 2012 story originally broken by The New York Times launched the probe), government inquiries on both sides of the border and criminal court proceedings costing the retailer dearly — reportedly more than $820 million (before the proposed $300 million penalty). Those costs would be compounded mightily if Wal-Mart were to lose its ability to participate in the federal SNAP program. Any major grocer derives a fair business from SNAP, and the demographics of Wal-Mart’s customer base in particular include many consumers on the lower end of the income scale.