S.Korean Lotte Group's family member summoned on bribery scandal

One of family members of Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth-largest family-controlled conglomerates, was summoned on Friday by prosecutors for questioning on charges of taking bribes from a local cosmetics company seeking to shelf space in the group's duty-free shops.

Shin Young-ja, the eldest daughter of group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and older sister of chairman Shin Dong-bin, appeared in the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to be questioned about whether to have received bribes from former chief executive of Nature Republic Jung Woon-ho.

She has been accused of receiving one to two billion won (1.74 million U.S. dollars) between 2012 and 2015 from Jung, who had already been detained for various charges, including bribing former prosecutors to stop indictments for illegal overseas gambling and other irregularities.

In return, Shin, 74, now executive director of Lotte Scholarship Foundation, was suspected of providing preferential treatment to Jung, such as the offering of shelf space in Lotte's duty-free stores.

On June 2, the prosecution dispatched more than 100 investigators to search the offices of Hotel Lotte's duty-free division and the home of Shin Young-ja, who actually resigned from the conglomerate's management after the end of her tenure as president of Lotte Shopping in 2012.

She is now director of multiple group affiliates, including Hotel Lotte and Lotte Shopping. She also owns shares across group units as a founding family, with 0.74 percent in Lotte Shopping, 2. 52 percent in Lotte Confectionery, 2.66 percent in Lotte Chilsung Beverage and 1.09 percent in Lotte Foods.

Six days later, prosecutors arrested Lee Hyo-wook, chief executive of BNF Trading that is controlled by Shin's 48-year-old son Jang Jae-young but is known to have been actually operated by Shin, on charges of destroying evidence. The BNF Trading is suspected of serving as a channel to funnel bribes into Shin.

The home of a Lotte Scholarship Foundation executive, believed to one of Shin's close aides, was searched by prosecutors on Tuesday, three days before the summoning of Shin for questioning.

(APD)