Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Lotte boss takes own life
Korean criminal probe into firm’s slush fund
SEOUL: One of the top executives at South Korea’s Lotte Group was found dead yesterday, a suspected suicide, hours before he was to be questioned by prosecutors conducting a criminal probe into the country’s fifth-largest conglomerate.
Lotte Group confirmed the death of vice chairman Lee Inwon, which comes after the group was riven by a family succession feud last year and subjected in June to widespread raids by government prosecutors.
Lee had been with the group for 43 years and was the most senior executive outside the Shin family that controls the conglomerate, or chaebol. He was a longtime CEO of Lotte Shopping, one of the group’s biggest businesses.
The police said Lee’s body was found under a tree along a cycling path near Seoul. They said he had left home around 10pm on Thursday. A four-page note was found in the executive’s car parked nearby.
An autopsy showed Lee’s death appeared to be a “typical case of death by hanging”, police said.
Lee, wearing shorts and a black windbreaker, appeared to have hung himself from a tree with a necktie.
Lee was the top lieutenant of chairman Shin Dong-bin, who last year saw off a bitter challenge from his older brother for control of the group founded in 1948 in Japan as a maker of chewing gum by their father, Shin Kyuk-ho, who is now 93.
“He ( Lee) oversaw Lotte Group’s overall housekeeping and core businesses,” Lotte Group said in a statement.
Lee was also engaged in finding new growth opportunities for Lotte, the group said.
A prosecution team of about 200 people raided Lotte offices in June, looking into a possible slush fund as well as breach of trust involving transactions among the group’s companies, sources said at the time.
Lee, 69, had been scheduled to appear before prosecutors, a Lotte official said.
A South Korean prosecutor, who declined to be identified, expressed condolences for Lee’s death and said prosecutors planned to reconsider the schedule for the ongoing probe.
Park Ju-gun, head of corporate analysis firm CEO Score, said Lee’s death was likely to hamper the investigation.
“Lee’s standing within Lotte was almost on par with that of the owner family members,” he said.
The investigation of Lotte had already exacted a devastating toll on its business, which ranges from hotels to retail to chemicals. Its Hotel Lotte unit was forced in June to shelve an initial public offering to raise up to 5.27 trillion won (R66bn), which would have made it the world’s largest this year.
Also in June, its Lotte Chemical unit withdrew from bidding for US-based Axiall, citing its difficulties in South Korea. – Reuters