Chairman Shin Dong-Bin was charged with embezzling USD50 million and illegally offering relatives business favours that cost the group about USD120 million.
South Korean prosecutors demanded a 10-year jail term today for the chairman of embattled retail giant the Lotte Group for embezzlement and breach of duty.
The country’s fifth largest conglomerate has been battered by boycott campaigns in China over South Korea’s deployment of a US missile defence system — for which it provided the land — and by criminal trials for members of its founding family.
Chairman Shin Dong-Bin was charged with embezzling USD 50 million and illegally offering relatives business favours that cost the group about USD 120 million.
Similar charges were levelled against his older brother and sister and their father, Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-Ho — as well as the latter’s mistress.
«The family members tried to run the group as if it was their private property using all possible ways imaginable for such a long time,» the prosecutors said in a statement.
Dong-Bin awarded lucrative deals or paid «wages» worth millions of dollars to relatives who made little contribution to management, they said, also urging he be fined 100 billion won (USD89 million).
