Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin appeared before the prosecution Tuesday for questioning over alleged embezzlement and tax evasion, as the high-profile probe into the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate nears an end.
The chairman was the first Lotte chief to be summoned by state prosecutors as a suspect since the group’s formation in 1967.
The 61-year-old chairman is suspected of creating slush funds and evading taxes, involving in total more than 200 billion won ($179 million).
Paper is hurled by a protester toward Shin Dong-bin (center), chairman of Lotte Group, as he arrives at the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office on Tuesday, to face questioning over the group's alleged slush funds and embezzlement. (Yonhap)
The prosecution has been investigating whether he shifted financial damages inflicted from a series of failed merger and acquisition cases overseas to Lotte’s affiliates, and transferred assets of the retail giant’s unit to another at below market price.
“I am sorry for causing concern,” he told reporters before entering the prosecutors’ office in Seoul. “I will fully cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation.”
He declined to reply reporters’ questions and walked into the prosecution’s office shortly after.
A team of four prosecutors have been investigating the chairman on suspicions that he and his aides orchestrated the creation of slush funds for years through Lotte’s construction arm Lotte Engineering and Construction and others.
They are also looking into the allegation that the chairman pocketed some 10 billion won every year from Lotte’s units in Japan and examining whether the case is subject to embezzlement charges. He is listed as a board member of the group’s Japanese affiliates, but did not work for them, investigators said.
The prosecution began investigating the group and its owner family in June. It has raided several offices of the group and its affiliates as well as the residences of key executives including the chairman.
The chairman is the last to face the prosecution’s summons. Investigators questioned his father and group founder Shin Kyuk-ho at his office in Hotel Lotte on the alleged illegal transfer of wealth to his children.
His elder brother Shin Dong-joo, who fought for the group’s leadership last year, was also questioned over alleged embezzlement worth some tens of billions of won. Their half-sister Shin Young-ja has already been put behind bars on charges of bribery. The authorities said they are considering indicting the founder’s third wife Seo Mi-kyung, who is suspected of evading taxes, for disobeying summons. Seo is in Japan and has been rejecting calls to return home to face the prosecution.
The probe has been delayed due to the unexpected death of Lotte’s No. 2 man Lee In-won.
Lee, who was close to the chairman, was found dead in an apparent suicide late last month, the day when he was supposed to appear before the prosecution for questioning. He left a will saying that the chairman is a great man and that there is no slush fund within the group.
The chairman on Tuesday was accompanied by his lawyer Hong Sung-won, from Kim and Chang, one of the largest law firms in Korea. Unlike his elder brother, Shin faced the prosecution’s questions without a translator, officials said. The two brothers were born to a Japanese mother and were raised in Japan.
The prosecution said it would conclude whether to indict the chairman soon after questioning him. Lotte Group has reportedly requested for the prosecution to let him face trial without a detention order, citing the unresolved family feud over the group’s management control.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)
