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Lotte Group founder gets 4-year jail term

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Kyodo News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/business/12/22/shin-dong-bin-rtr-2017-122217.jpg"/><figcaption>Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin attends a news conference in Seoul, South Korea on October 25, 2016. Kim Hong-Ji, Reuters/file photo</figcaption></figure></div>A Seoul court on Friday sentenced the 95-year-old founder of the Lotte Group, Shin Kyuk Ho, to four years in prison after finding him guilty of charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.His younger son and group chairman, Shin Dong Bin, was given a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years, for similar charges while elder son Shin Dong Joo was acquitted in a verdict announced in the Seoul Central District Court.Shin Kyuk Ho, who was acquitted of tax evasion charges, was also fined 3.5 billion won (about $3.2 million). He was not taken into custody after the court announced the verdict in consideration of his advance age and ailing health.&quot;The crimes were aimed at providing economic support to his family. He was in charge of the whole process,&quot; the court said.The Lotte Group said in a statement that it &quot;respects the court&#x27;s judgment.&quot;&quot;Lotte Group will work in unison to contribute to achieving economic development and will do its best to fulfill social responsibility,&quot; it said.Prosecutors last year indicted Shin Kyuk Ho, his three children and his mistress on embezzlement, tax evasion and other charges.Among the management irregularities, the prosecutors said the founder ordered Lotte to pay a total of about 50 billion won in the name of wages to family members who had never worked for the company.He was also charged with breach of trust for inflicting losses by giving his mistress the right to run concessions at Lotte Cinema movie theaters. The prosecution demanded a 10-year prison term and a 300-billion-won fine.The prosecutors sought a 10-year prison term and a 100-billion-won fine for chairman Shin Dong Bin, 62, along with a five-year term for Shin Dong Joo, 63, and seven years each for his daughter and mistress over similar charges.The daughter, Shin Young Ja, head of the Lotte Foundation, was sentenced to two years in prison, while the mistress received a suspended sentence.South Korea&#x27;s fifth-largest conglomerate has been reeling under a series of scandals since 2015.In 2016, the founder&#x27;s older son, known as Hiroyuki Shigemitsu in Japan, led a failed boardroom coup in Tokyo, where Lotte was founded decades earlier.The chairman, known as Akio Shigemitsu in Japan, wrested control of the conglomerate from his elder brother after ousting him in a boardroom coup.The Lotte founder, whose Japanese name is Takeo Shigemitsu, founded Lotte in 1948 as a chewing gum maker and distributor. The company now makes confectionary and operates hotels, golf links and restaurants as well as professional baseball teams in Japan and South Korea.

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced the 95-year-old founder of the Lotte Group, Shin Kyuk Ho, to four years in prison after finding him guilty of charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced the 95-year-old founder of the Lotte Group, Shin Kyuk Ho, to four years in prison after finding him guilty of charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.