Shin Dong-joo, the elder son of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, was summoned to the prosecution Thursday morning to be questioned over corruption allegations in a sweeping investigation of Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate.

Other key Lotte Group executives and incumbent chairman Dong-bin are also expected to be summoned next week as prosecutors have resumed the investigation into the embattled retail giant that was suspended after one of the company’s senior executives was found dead in an apparent suicide last week before the scheduled prosecutors’ questioning.

Prosecutors suspect Dong-joo has received some tens of billions of won as a stipend by just being listed as a board member of the group`s major affiliates.

He is the second member of the owner family questioned by prosecutors after Shin Young-ja, his elder sister who was detained and indicted in July for bribery charges.

Prosecutors have been investigating Lotte Group since early June over alleged slush funds and embezzlement. The slush funds through dubious deals with affiliates and companies with links to the owner family and other corruptions related to the owner family emerged during a bitter feud between the two brothers for managerial control last year.

Prosecutors are also demanding the group founder`s third wife Seo Mi-kyung and his youngest daughter Yu-mi, both staying in Japan, to return to Korea for investigations as part of the group’s slush fund allegations.

Early last month, the Korean prosecution launched investigation over the group founder, alleging for dodging 600 billion won ($535 million) worth of taxes by illegally transferring 6 percent of stakes in Japan-based Lotte Holdings Co. he had held under a borrowed account to his third wife, youngest daughter and eldest daughter in 2005.

By Kim Se-woong

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]