Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)

[big-yank]

robb, I too have experience working with a company that took on the U.S. Attorney's Office to preserve its cozy way of operating and I watched a cadre of corporate attornies and those counselors representing key executives challenge the Feds. They teed off the wrong people. The CEO went to Federal prison for 10 years, the COO got 5 years and the CFO got a short sentence, huge fine and never worked in finance again, as far as I know. All because huge egos couldn't grasp the stark reality of risk in attacking vs. resolving a dispute with the Feds.

I am not an attorney, either, but I see extreme risk to WAG by their filing a specific action against the Attorney General of the United States... not quite the same thing as telling Officer Krupke: "Krup You" in West Side Story. Walgreens could have filed an appeal to the DEA decision without initiating a suit against the senior official in Federal law enforcement.

If Eric Holder decides that he has had enough nitpicky crap thrown at him and responds with a full frontal Federal Action against Walgreens, I do not think you will see HHS or less toothsome agencies taking the lead in the action. I think you could potentially see a bludgeoning ensue in the public forum because the details of the original complaint seem to me to be impossible for Walgreens to refute and could be highly damaging to the corporate reputation if aired extensively in the media.

GLTA,

Yank