Another Walmart employee in Mexico said there were no records showing what work the gestores did, whom they met with or how many hours they worked. Walmart investigators raised concerns about these payments and recommended that the company conduct further inquiry. But the investigation was eventually handed over to a lawyer in the Mexico unit, who had been accused of authorizing many of the payments. That lawyer concluded that the "corruption allegations were unsubstantiated." The bribery scandal was a huge blow to Walmart's reputation, spurring investor lawsuits and broader questions about the company's leadership. Many of the Walmart's most senior executives in Mexico, India and Bentonville, Ark., left the company in the wake of The Times's investigation. The case also highlights the perils of American corporations seeking to increase their profits by expanding in countries with different legal systems and political cultures. In 1990, all of Walmart's stores were in the United States.