[THE INVESTOR] Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin on Sept. 28 appeared before a Seoul court where judges reviewed an arrest warrant request for him.

Shin, 61, is facing embezzlement and breach of trust charges worth about 200 billion won (US$180 million) in a probe into the retail giant’s corruption and slush fund creation scandal.

“I will respond to the judges sincerely,” he told reporters before entering the court.

“I apologize to the public for causing concern.”

 

Sources say other owner family members -- Lotte Group founder and the chairman’s father Shin Kyuk-ho, his common-law wife Seo Mi-kyung and elder son  Shin Dong-joo, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan -- are also likely to be indicted soon.

All of them are suspected of being overpaid by Lotte companies in Korea and Japan even though they have played no management role as registered board members.

The Lotte chairman is also accused of breaching his duty by giving supply orders to specific affiliates closely linked to the owner family.

He is also suspected of embezzling corporate funds in the process of asset transfers and mergers and acquisitions between the group’s affiliates as well as real estate transactions.

He reportedly denied most of the allegations when he was questioned by the prosecution on Sept. 20.

It was the first time that a head of Lotte, the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate, has ever been summoned since its establishment in 1967.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)