Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may face sizable fines stemming from allegations of widespread bribery at its Mexican affiliate, Reuters reported. The New York Times released a second report on the alleged bribery Monday night. Experts told Reuters the report shows the alleged bribes were a substantial part of the affiliate’s business methods.

The New York Times reported Wal-Mart used hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to open 19 Walmex stores in Mexico. Wal-Mart declined to comment to Reuters.

According to the Times, Wal-Mart has 2,275 stores, restaurants and supermarkets in Mexico.

From The New York Times:

Thanks to eight bribe payments totaling $341,000, for example, Wal-Mart built a Sam’s Club in one of Mexico City’s most densely populated neighborhoods, near the Basílica de Guadalupe, without a construction license, or an environmental permit, or an urban impact assessment, or even a traffic permit. Thanks to nine bribe payments totaling $765,000, Wal-Mart built a vast refrigerated distribution center in an environmentally fragile flood basin north of Mexico City, in an area where electricity was so scarce that many smaller developers were turned away.

Wal-Mart is cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the investigation, Reuters reported. The amount of the fines Wal-Mart faces is yet to be determined.

According to Reuters, the Justice Department typically calculates fine amounts in foreign bribery cases by levying a per-violation fine or a penalty tied to the profits a company earned through the alleged bribery. Reuters reported that Walmex posted 2011 gross profits of nearly $6.58 billion.  

The company headquarters are in Bentonville, Ark.

Read more of Neon Tommy’s coverage on Wal-Mart here.

Reach Executive Producer Agnus Dei Farrant here.