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S.Korean Lotte Group founder's son summoned by prosecutors for alleged corruptions

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The first son of South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho was summoned by prosecutors on Thursday for his alleged corruptions, becoming the second member of the founding family to be summoned for questioning.

Shin Dong-joo, 62, appeared in the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office for questioning over alleged embezzlement of tens of billions of won (tens of millions of U.S. dollars), according to local media reports.

He has been suspected of receiving about 40 billion won as a stipend from seven to eight affiliates of the group in the past several years by being listed just as a board member of the companies while doing nothing special for their businesses.

The summoning was the second time that Lotte's founding family member appeared in the prosecution office for questioning.

Shin Young-ja, 74, the founder's eldest daughter, was detained and indicted in July for receiving some 3.5 billion won in kickbacks from local companies in return for offering business favors in the group's duty-free shops and department stores.

Prosecutors have reportedly ordered the founder's third wife and her daughter, who are staying in Japan, to return to Seoul for investigation into charges of evading hundreds of billions of won in taxes in the process of being gifted with borrowed-name stakes in Lotte Holdings from the founder.

The Japan-based Lotte Holdings is regarded as the group's de-facto holding company. The South Korean court designated a legal guardian for the group founder aged 94 on Wednesday due to his lack of ability to make judgments for his old age and mental health problems.

The founder's second son Shin Dong-bin, 61, incumbent chairman of the group, is expected to be summoned in the near future as part of the prosecution's broad probe into the group's slush funds, embezzlement and breach of trust.

Lee In-won, vice chairman of the group and closest aide to chairman Shin, was found dead last week. Police had concluded that Lee committed a suicide. Endit