Trbusiness. The travel retail Trbusiness. The magazine for global retail and duty free professionals.Prosecutors seek arrest warrant for Lotte Chairman
By Doug Newhouse |
The South Korean Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a warrant for the arrest of Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin, as the wide-ranging investigation into the company’s affairs continues.
This follows the suicide of the 61-year old company leader’s right hand man last August – former Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won, aged 69.
Reuters and all three of Seoul’s most respected national newspapers have widely reported this week that prosecutors are seeking to charge Shin Dong-bin on counts of embezzlement and breach of trust.
Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin is said to be cooperating with the authorities.
A TOUGH THREE MONTHS FOR LOTTE…
However, any ‘warrant request’ submission to the Seoul Central District Court does not automatically translate into ‘approval’ – as prosecutors well know and a decision was still pending as TRBusiness went to press.
Of course, this latest development is hardly a surprise and it has clearly only been delayed to allow a brief period of respite between Lee In-won’s untimely death last August to the present day.
In the meantime, the Lotte Shopping Company’s share price fell again on Monday’s news relating to the arrest warrant request.
This has just added to its multiple woes over the last three months, since it cancelled its planned $4.5bn IPO last June following adverse publicity – especially the very public seizure of documents from its Seoul-based company offices by prosecutor’s officers.
(Top left) Lotte’s flagship Sogong store in downtown Seoul which generates more duty free sales than any other single outlet in South Korea; (Top right) The Lotte World Tower where the company had hoped it might win back its duty free license which was cancelled. (Bottom gallery) Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin; Shin Young-ja, daughter of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk Ho; and former Lotte Vice Chairman Lee In-won who committed suicide last August.
MULTIPLE ‘CHALLENGES’
As if the company did not have enough problems, Shin Young-ja, the 73-year-old daughter of the South Korean Lotte Group’s 94-year old founder Shin Kyuk Ho, was also arrested in Seoul on July 7. This involved charges of accepting bribes from a Korean-based cosmetics firm in return for preferential shop positions.
To cap it all, Lotte then lost its duty free licence for its prestigious flagship Lotte World Tower duty free store in Central Seoul – where it had previously been optimistic of winning a reprieve.
Applications for this license and another (previously held by the SK Group for the WalkerHill Hotel duty free shop) are now due to open in Seoul on October 4 next week.
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