Published : Oct. 30, 2017 - 16:59
Prosecutors demanded 10 years in prison for Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin on Monday for a string of irregularities in the management of South Korea's retail giant.
Shin was indicted in October last year on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust. He is accused of paying 50 billion won in wages to people who never worked for the company and of inflicting about 130 billion won in losses on some Lotte affiliates by forcing them to cover the losses of other subsidiaries.
(Yonhap)
The prosecution also requested the court sentence his brother Shin Dong-joo, former vice chairman of Japan-based Lotte Holdings, to five years; and it asked for seven years each for his imprisoned sister Shin Young-ja and his father's mistress Seo Mi-kyung over similar charges.
Prosecutors asked the court to fine the chairman 100 billion won (US$88.9 million) and the other three members between 12.5 billion won to 220 billion won.
The prosecution claimed the Shin family "has accumulated a tremendous amount of wealth through illegal means, and the chairman privatized company assets for the sake of his family's own interests."
The defendants have mostly denied the charges, arguing that all the decisions were made by Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho and they had no choice but to follow their father's directions.
They also claimed that some of the decisions were intended to salvage the affiliate from going belly up and asked for consideration be given to the crisis in the business stemming from Seoul's diplomatic row with Beijing over the THAAD defense system.
"I'm deeply sorry for causing concerns," the chairman said. "If I'm given another chance, I'll do everything I can to turn Lotte into a more transparent company as I've realized that a firm belongs to its investors and is not something that the owner possesses."
The court is due to announce its sentence on the Shin family on Dec. 22.
The elder Shin, 95, has been on trial separately over similar charges. The prosecution is set to deliver its sentencing demand for him later in the week.
Chairman Shin has also been standing trial in another case over the massive corruption scandal involving ousted President Park Geun-hye and her close friend Choi Soon-sil. He is accused of paying hundreds of billions of won in bribes to two foundations allegedly controlled by Choi at Park's request. (Yonhap)