Walmart Hires Former Prosecutor for Ethics Job (Corrected)

Walmart has hired former Justice Department prosecutor David Searle as its international ethics and compliance officer.

Searle was an assistant U.S. attorney, where he prosecuted cases involving fraud, money laundering, extortion, export violations, worksite violations and human trafficking.

He evaluated corporate compliance programs to make sure they conformed with laws governing corruption, antitrust, data privacy, insider trading, exports and imports and conflicts of interest.

“I look forward to working with Walmart’s talented team and to helping build on the company’s leading global ethics and compliance program,” said Searle, who joins Walmart on May 28.

Walmart has been steadily adding experienced lawyers in recent months, hiring three female general counsel since last year starting with Rachel Brand, formerly No. 3 at the Justice Department.

The retail giant also brought aboard Kerri Ruttenberg, former head of litigation at Jones Day in Washington as its new senior vice president of litigation.

Searle, who was a federal appeals court clerk following law school, worked most recently as chief compliance officer and associate general counsel at the Bristow Group, an industrial aviation services company, for more than four years.

Before that, Searle he was the director of compliance for Nexeo Solutions LLC, a chemicals and plastics distributor, and audit and investigations counsel for Baker Hughes, Inc., a global oilfield services company.

Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s office in Houston, Searle was an associate at Baker Botts, also in Houston.

Searle will report to Daniel Trujillo, executive vice president, global chief ethics and compliance officer.