Executive of South Korea’s Lotte Group found dead amid corruption probe

One of the top executives of Lotte Group has been found dead as authorities widen a probe into corruption at South Korea’s fifth-largest business group, officials at the company and police said Friday.

Vice chairman Lee In-won, 69, the company’s highest-ranking executive outside the founding family and the top aide to its chairman, was found dead hours before a scheduled appearance at a prosecutors’ office Friday morning.

“It is difficult to believe,” Lotte Group said in a text message to reporters. Lee has been a Lotte executive for more than 40 years since he joined the company’s hotel business in 1973.

See the most-read stories in World News this hour »

The death sends Lotte into a fresh crisis. South Korean prosecutors are investigating allegations of embezzlement, slush funds and tax evasions at Lotte Group. The investigation forced the group in June to withdraw its initial public offering plan for Hotel Lotte Co., which could have raised as much as $5.1 billion.

Local media reported that Lee took his own life. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency quoted a note he left as saying that there was no slush fund, in an apparent response to prosecutors’ allegations. The report said a resident found his body on a mountain in the east of Seoul early Friday morning.

A police official who declined to give his name said authorities were investigating the case as a possible suicide. The official confirmed that Lee left a note but refused to comment on its contents. Lotte could not confirm the report.

The ongoing investigation and the death of its longtime executive is the latest challenge for Lotte Group, with two sons of Lotte’s 93-year-old founder, Shin Kyuk-ho, already embroiled in a bitter battle over control of the group.

In a rare public display of a family feud among South Korean business elites, the younger son, Shin Dong-bin, 61, last year demoted his father to honorary chairman from general chairman overseeing Lotte’s businesses in Japan and South Korea. His older brother, Shin Dong-joo, 62, was removed from executive positions at various Lotte companies and then launched several failed attempts to take back the group from his younger brother.

The younger Shin, now chairman at Lotte Group, apologized publicly in June, days after prosecutors raided Lotte’s headquarters. The investigation was a setback for Shin Dong-bin, who had vowed to make his group and its governance transparent as public criticism mounted because of the fight with his brother.

Lee In-won was a top aide to Shin Dong-bin.

Lotte started as a chewing gum company in Japan in 1948. It now operates businesses in chemicals, food, shopping and hotels, including South Korea’s largest discount and department store chains. Its brands are well recognized not only in Japan and South Korea but around Southeast Asia.

Deaths of high-profile political or business figures facing legal investigations or corruption charges are not uncommon. In 2009, former President Roh Moo-hyun killed himself amid a corruption scandal involving his family members.

ALSO

At least one dead, 26 hurt as gunmen attack American University in Kabul

As women are fined for wearing head scarves, French activists push back on ‘burkini’ ban

Crews find living among the dead as search goes on for survivors of Italy quake