Walmart, Indians and Kickbacks

CTOL Digital, a Swiss consultancy firm, recently reported that "Walmart Fires VP for Taking Daily Kickbacks Starting from $30K" and, consequently, severed ties with certain contractors. The article relates:

    Over a single weekend in August, 1,200 technology contractors found themselves locked out of their systems, their access badges deactivated, their projects suspended indefinitely. The mass termination wasn't the result of budget cuts or strategic pivots—it was the fallout from a corruption scheme that reached into the highest echelons of Walmart's Global Tech division.

    The retail giant's abrupt severance of ties with Caspex-sourced contractors followed the firing of a Global Tech vice president who had been orchestrating an elaborate kickback operation. Daily payments starting from $30,000 flowed from contracting agencies seeking preferential treatment in Walmart's vast technology ecosystem, sources familiar with the investigation revealed.

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    The financial mechanics are straightforward yet devastating. Technology executives with authority over contractor requisitions and interview processes can direct substantial volume toward "preferred" staffing shops. In exchange, these vendors provide kickbacks that, in Walmart's case, generated what sources estimate as millions in illicit payments over multiple years.   

Walmart had admitted to terminating one vendor and a small number of U.S. based associates, but denies any link to a larger H1B scandal.  Most of the reports I could find on this maintain that the allegations have not been confirmed by Walmart, and mostly focus on how Indian workers are concerned about increased scrutiny of the H1B and H2B visa programs. However, most of these reports appeared to either directly reproduce or heavily rely on a couple articles on the subject from the Hindustan Times, so not an unbiased source.