KCS says Lotte duty-free license may be revoked

Lotte Duty Free may be stripped off its license to operate its branch in southern Seoul by the Korea Customs Service if Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is found guilty of bribery.

According to a KCS spokesman Monday, in the event of a guilty verdict the license will be revoked “according to the guidelines set forth at the time of the tender.”

Chairman Shin is currently on trial after being indicted for giving 7 billion won ($6.2 million) last May to organizations run by former President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil in exchange for a favorable evaluation during the duty-free licensing tender.

Although the contribution was returned to Lotte in June, prosecutors suspect the initial donation was made with the understanding it was a bribe agreed upon by Park and Shin during a meeting in March.

The suspicions involving Shin’s donation had put pressure on the KCS to push back the evaluations last year. At the time, the KCS justified granting Lotte Duty Free a license to revive its World Tower branch by saying the license “would definitely be revoked if the operator is found to have falsified facts or engaged in misconduct.”

Lotte Duty Free’s World Tower branch was closed after losing its license in November 2015, but reopened after the operator won back its license in another tender last year. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)