South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday charged the chairman of retail giant Lotte Group, along with his father and brother, with tax evasion and embezzlement following a lengthy corruption probe. According to the indictment, chairman Shin Dong-Bin, 61, cost the country's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate 175 billion won ($162 million) through a series of financial scams and irregularities.
Similar charges were levelled against Shin's father, Lotte's 93-year-old founder Shin Kyuk-Ho, as well as Shin's older brother Shin Dong-Joo. The Seoul-based group, founded in Tokyo in 1948, has a vast network of businesses in South Korea and Japan including department stores, hotels and processed food, with combined assets valued at more than $90 billion. It has been in the headlines since last year due to a bitter and very public fight for control of the group between Shin Dong-Bin and his older brother. The dispute, which ended after the group's board members sided with Shin Dong-Bin, fuelled public criticism of how South Korea's dominant family-run conglomerates - known as "chaebol" - conduct their business affairs.
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