Walmart whistleblower claims retail giant allowed offensive items on their site and issued misleading e-commerce results in desperate attempt to compete with Amazon

  • Tri Huynh is a former director of business development for Walmart 
  • He alleges he was fired in January 2017 because he spoke out against dirty tricks 
  • A lawsuit filed in San Francisco, California, claims the company mislabeled products so third-party vendors received a lower commission
  • Walmart has spent billions of dollars to grow its e-commerce business 

A former Walmart employee alleges that the retail store used dirty tricks with its e-commerce market to keep up with Amazon in a lawsuit filed Thursday. 

Tri Huynh, a former director of business development for Walmart, from San Francisco, California, reportedly filed a lawsuit against the company after he was fired under 'false pretenses' in January 2017. 

The whistleblower alleges that the retail giant terminated him after he raised concerns about the lengths the company was using to show its e-commerce growth. 

Huynh claims Walmart mislabeled products so that third-party vendors were paid a lower commission, among other violations.

A former Walmart employee alleges the retail giant has mislabeled products so third-party vendors receive a lower commission, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday

A former Walmart employee alleges the retail giant has mislabeled products so third-party vendors receive a lower commission, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday

The lawsuit also claims that Walmart lied about customer returns and would keep offensive items on the site to help with sales reports.

Huynh was terminated from the company in January 2017, just one day after a publication singled him out as a 'rising star', Bloomberg reports. 

Tri Huynh, the employee who filed the lawsuit, claims he was fired in January 2017 after he expressed concerns about Walmart's dirty tricks to compete against Amazon's e-commerce growth

Tri Huynh, the employee who filed the lawsuit, claims he was fired in January 2017 after he expressed concerns about Walmart's dirty tricks to compete against Amazon's e-commerce growth

Huynh filed the lawsuit on Thursday in San Francisco. 

'Walmart sacrificed and betrayed its founder's key principles of integrity and honesty, pushing those core values aside in its rush to win the e-commerce war at all costs,' Huynh said in the 70-page complaint, according to Bloomberg.

'In doing this, it realized it must silence any whistleblower who spoke up against its 'win at all costs' approach.' 

He alleges that the growth of Amazon encouraged Walmart to go to certain lengths in order to stay competitive with the retail empire.

Walmart has invested billions of dollars in the last few years to keep up with Amazon's e-commerce market. 

The retail chain has focused more on growing its online business and has closed Sam's Club locations in order to garner more funding towards e-commerce. 

The company grew its e-commerce at the same rate as Amazon last year at 18 percent.

Walmart also experienced quarterly online sales growth at over 50 percent for last year. But it is still number three in sales behind Amazon and Apple. 

Huynh's lawsuit calls into questions the validity of these numbers.

Randy Hargrove, a spokesperson for Walmart, told Dailymail.com that the allegations come from a 'disgruntled former employee' who was let go due to the restructuring of the company. 

He said an investigation looked into the allegations made by Huynh and found nothing to suggest the company acted improperly.