A handwritten will was found in Lee’s vehicle, near the walking trail.
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“He might have been put under emotional pressure (before the prosecutors’ summons)”, said a high-ranking official at the group.
Last year, businessman Sung Wan-Jong hanged himself, leaving a note suggesting he had offered bribes to powerful elite players including former Prime Minister Lee Wan-Koo. Police officials weren’t available to comment on a Yonhap News report that authorities found what appeared to be a suicide note in his vehicle nearby. He left a hand-written, four-page will saying the so-called secret slush fund does not exist. Lee was facing an investigation into whether he was involved in creating slush funds at Lotte Engineering and Construction, in addition to other corruption charges.
Prosecutors will need to revise the schedule for questioning concerned parties and reassess how to conduct the investigation, a source from the prosecutors’ office said. Lee, Hwang and So were often called the “Big Three” of the group. Chairman Shin is a great person.
Lee, who was 69, had been scheduled to appear before prosecutors on Friday morning, a Lotte official said.
Ms Shin is accused of taking kickbacks from a cosmetics maker for preferential treatment of its products in Lotte duty-free shops, as well as allegedly embezzling more than US$3.5 million from a company owned by her son.
Shin Young-ja, the eldest daughter of the group founder, has been imprisoned on a string of corruption charges, including embezzlement and bribery. The prosecution expressed its condolences and said it will review future investigation plans. “But that seems more hard after what happened”.
“Lee always underscored the sense of ethics to Lotte workers as it is directly linked to the improvements of corporate value”. One of them said he couldn’t figure out why Lee made “such an extreme choice”. Lotte also issued a statement confirming Mr.
Lee was a much-trusted veteran of the family-held Korean chaebol (conglomerate), having worked for the company since 1973 in various roles.
Lee was one of the highest ranking members of the Korean-Japanese conglomerate outside the ruling Shin family. Some conjectured that Lee was under severe psychological stress.
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Employees enter a Lotte Group office building in downtown Seoul on August 26, 2016.
