SEOUL, South Korea—Lotte Group’s vice chairman has been found dead as authorities widen a probe into corruption at South Korea’s fifth-largest business group, officials at the company and police said Friday.
Lee In-won, 69, the company’s highest-ranking executive outside the founding family and the top aide to its chairman, was found dead hours before a scheduled appearance at a prosecutors’ office Friday morning.
“It is difficult to believe,” Lotte Group said in a text message to reporters. Lee has been a Lotte man for more than 40 years since he joined the company’s hotel business in 1973.
Lotte Group Vice Chairman Lee In-won at a charity fundraising event in Seoul, South Korea in Dec. 16, 2015. Yonhap via AP
