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| Officers from the Yangpyeong Police Station inspect a sedan that belonged to Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won, who was found hanged from a tree near a trail in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, hours before facing questioning by the prosecution over corruption allegations surrounding the group. The inset photo is of Lee. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han |
Vice chairman found dead, denies slush fund creation in suicide note
By Jung Min-ho
Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won was found dead Friday, the day when he was to face questioning by the prosecution about a slush fund and other corruption allegations involving top executives at the conglomerate.
The suspected suicide of the top lieutenant of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is expected to derail the prosecution's investigation into key figures within the nation's fifth-largest group.
Lee, the No. 2 man in the group, was found hanged from a tree in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, at 7:10 a.m., according to police.
He was scheduled to attend the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to be questioned about the group's alleged creation of a 30 billion won ($27 million) slush fund.
Investigators suspected that he was one of the key figures behind the fund, which they believe was spent on illegally lobbying politicians.
Lee was the chief of Lotte's policy department that supervised overall affairs within the group. For prosecutors, he was the key man to figure out whether the group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Chairman Shin were directly involved in creating the slush fund, and other illegal activities such as embezzlement and tax evasion.
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Denial of slush fund
In a suicide note police found in his car nearby the tree, Lee denied the allegations, writing that "there is no slush fund in Lotte" and Chairman Shin "is a great man." Full details of the four-page note were not revealed.
Police said Lee did not return to his house in Seoul after going out at around 10 p.m. Thursday. He told his family that he was going to exercise.
With the agreement of his family, police carried out an autopsy on his body and concluded that death was a result of strangulation through hanging, with no signs of murder.
An official from the prosecution said investigators will have to modify their investigation, expressing his condolences to Lee's family members.
The incident created shockwaves within the Lotte Group. Company officials said there was nothing suspicious about Lee's behavior, Thursday. "It appeared to be a normal day for him. Before getting off work at 6:30 p.m., he discussed ways to handle the investigation at a meeting with company lawyers," an official said.
Lee worked at Lotte for 43 years, earning the trust of the company's family owners. After studying Japanese at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, he started his career at Lotte Hotel in 1973.
When Lotte was embroiled in a bitter succession feud between the founder's two sons, Lee took sides with Chairman Shin, the younger one. Lee cemented his position as "the No.2 man in the group," after the chairman won the support of shareholders.
What prompted the investigation, begun in June, were the alleged business favors that Lotte gained from the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008-2013), which gave the green light to the group's long-coveted plan to construct the Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul despite concerns about the flight path for the nearby Seoul Air Base. Lotte was suspected of receiving many other business favors, as during Lee Myung=bak's term, its total assets more than doubled.
Notably, investigators discovered evidence suggesting that Chairman Shin received 30 billion won each year from group affiliates. They also found key evidence suggesting that his father dodged 600 billion won in gift taxes.
In the course of the probe, Shin Young-ja, the Lotte Foundation chief and daughter of the founder, was indicted for alleged bribery and embezzlement.
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