South Korea’s anti-trust watchdog has opened an internal audit into allegations that E-Mart Co., the country’s largest discount chain operator, lobbied its officials to stop them from reporting the company’s unfair trading practices, industry sources said Thursday.

The audit comes after the recent leak of confidential documents of Shinsegae Group, the parent company of the discount chain operator, that included E-Mart’s illegal lobbying of Fair Trade Commission officials in a bid to have them keep mum about its unfair transactions.

“The commission has launched an audit into the allegations,” an industry source said.

According to the leaked documents, E-Mart entertained and offered gifts to officials who were responsible for overseeing its Seoul headquarters and stores in 13 cities including Busan, Daegu and Gwangju between August 2011 and January 2012. (Yonhap News)