[THE INVESTOR] The daughter of Lotte Group’s founder was sentenced to three years in prison on Jan. 19 for embezzlement and breach of trust.
This is the first court ruling against a family member of the retail giant.
The Seoul Central District Court convicted Shin Young-ja, head of the Lotte Foundation, of receiving bribes from various companies in return for business favors related to Lotte’s duty-free shops and department stores for over eight years.
State prosecutors launched a full-fledged investigation into the group in 2016, with members of the Shin family that runs the conglomerate being implicated in wrongdoing. The court ordered Shin, 74, to forfeit 1.44 billion won (US$1.22 million) she illegally pocketed.
“The defendant, as an executive of a conglomerate, failed to fulfill the basic social responsibility and role of running a company transparently and reasonably. She should be held responsible and made to recover damages done to Lotte Group,” the court stated.
(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)