A number of law firms including Kim & Chang, Bae, Kim & Lee, Lee & Ko and Shin & Kim have been hired by South Korea’s Lotte Group over a probe into a possible slush fund as well as breach of trust involving transactions among the group's companies.
According to Reuters, the probe has so far included raids on at least 10 firms including Lotte Chemical, the biggest listed unit within South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate. Last week a 200-strong team raided the group's headquarters, among other firms.
The probe ranks as the largest into a South Korean family-run "chaebol" in terms of the number of investigators mobilised, Reuters added, and the fallout has already seen the derailment of a planned initial public offering worth up $4.5 billion for Lotte's hotel and duty free unit. Lotte Chemical has also bowed out of bidding for a U.S. company.
According to local media, the Kim & Chang team set to represent Lotte Group's policy coordination bureau is being led by Chun Sung-gwan, former chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' office, Cha Dong-min former vice-chief of the Supreme Prosecutors' office.
