Lotte Group vice chairman found dead, suicide suspected (updated)

LOTTE Himart

26/08/2016 05:48

* Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won has died - Lotte 
Group 
    * Lee left suicide note in his car - Yonhap 
    * Lotte Group under criminal probe by S.Korea prosecutors 
 
 (Adds details from police official) 
    By Hyunjoo Jin and Se Young Lee 
    SEOUL, Aug 26 (Reuters) - One of the seniormost executives 
at South Korea's Lotte Group was found dead on Friday, a 
suspected suicide, hours before he was to be questioned by 
prosecutors conducting a criminal probe into the family-run 
conglomerate. 
    Lotte Group, in a text message to reporters, said it 
confirmed the death of Vice Chairman Lee In-won through police 
and other sources. It did not give the cause of death.  
    Yonhap News Agency, citing unnamed sources, reported a body 
believed to be Lee's was found on a walking path outside Seoul 
on Friday morning. Police were trying to confirm  the body was 
Lee's, it said, adding that a suicide note was found in the 
executive's car. 
    Lee had been with the group since 1973 and was the top 
executive outside the Shin family that controls the 
conglomerate. He was a longtime CEO of Lotte Shopping 
 023530.KS , one of the group's biggest businesses. 
    "When I arrived after the call, the deceased was lying down, 
crouched here," said Hyung Dae-ryong, Seojong precinct police 
station chief, who was first to respond to a report of a body 
found under a tree along the hiking trail. 
    The deceased, wearing shorts and a black windbreaker, 
appeared to have hung himself from a tree with a necktie, Hyung 
told reporters.  
    A maroon umbrella with the Lotte logo was found nearby.  
    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 by their 94-year-old father, Shin 
Kyuk-ho. 
    "He oversaw Lotte Group's overall housekeeping and core 
businesses and accurately understood the minds of 
Chairman-in-Chief Shin Kyuk-ho and Chairman Shin Dong-bin to be 
carried out well in subsidiary companies," Lotte Group said in a 
statement.  
    Lee was also engaged in finding new growth opportunities for 
Lotte, the group said. 
    Prosecutors 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.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N19605Y 
    Lee, who was 69, had been scheduled to appear before 
prosecutors on Friday morning, a Lotte official said. 
     
    HAMPER INVESTIGATION 
    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. 
    A South Korean prosecutor, who declined to be identified by 
name, expressed condolences for Lee's death and said prosecutors 
planned to reconsider the schedule for the ongoing probe. 
     The investigation into 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 5.7 trillion 
won ($5.12 billion), which would have made it the world's 
largest this year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N195138 
    Also in June, its Lotte Chemical Corp  011170.KS  unit 
withdrew from bidding for U.S.-based Axiall Corp  AXLL.N , 
citing its difficulties in South Korea. Rival Westlake Chemical 
Corp  WLK.N  ended up with a $2.33 billion deal for Axiall. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1922A1 
    ($1 = 1,113.2000 won) 
 
 (Additional reporting by Hyun-young Yi, Nataly Pak and Yun Hwan 
Chae; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) 
 ((tony.munroe@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5640; Reuters 
Messaging: tony.munroe.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: LOTTEGROUP EXECUTIVE/