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Smith left the company eight days after the memo was drafted to pursue other opportunities, PepsiCo said at the time. That memo accused company executives in Europe of not vetting the Wimm-Bill-Dann deal correctly. The documents mistakenly sent to the WSJ include a copy of a 2012 memo Gibson Dunn worked on for Smith that was intended for - but never got to - the PepsiCo board, according to the report. In additional to WilmerHale, PepsiCo-side lawyers involved in the SEC investigation response include former SEC Commissioner Mary Jo White of Debevoise & Plimpton, the report said. The WSJ said the documents it received indicated that lawyers found no conclusive evidence of more serious violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act but did find potential violations related to accounting that PepsiCo later addressed. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, according to the WSJ report, appears to have conducted the company's internal investigation following a whistleblower tip about Wimm-Bill-Dann.
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Ackerman and Palazzolo cover financial regulation and law enforcement for the newspaper, while Maloney writes about the beverage industry. WSJ reporters Andrew Ackerman, Joe Palazzolo and Jennifer Maloney shared a byline on the report. We are taking additional measures designed to ensure that emails are not misaddressed to unintended recipients. We are disappointed that the WSJ has decided to publish private information it knew was protected by our client's legal privilege. The information included a 31 August memo about Smith's subpoena and her contact with federal investigators that was mistakenly sent by a WilmerHale attorney to a Wall Street Journal reporter as part of communication to other attorneys working on the matter, the report said. The WSJ report, SEC Probes Departure of PepsiCo's Former Top Lawyer, outlined how its reporter learned details about the years-old internal investigation started by Smith and about the more recent SEC probe, for which Smith was subpoenaed. A subsequent SEC investigation into Smith's dismissal, and whether the company fired her in violation of whistleblower laws, is at an early stage, the WSJ reported. The internal investigation revolves around PepsiCo's 2011 acquisition of Russian drinks company Wimm-Bill-Dann and the departure of general counsel Maura Smith in 2012 following allegations of financial misreporting and other wrongdoing at PepsiCo. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr has been caught up in an email mix-up that revealed secret US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and internal investigations at PepsiCo, after a WilmerHale lawyer accidentally sent a Wall Street Journal ( WSJ) reporter privileged documents detailing a history of whistleblower claims at the company.