SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate, quitted as the head of Lotte Holdings, the Japan-based holding firm owning the South Korean group, Lotte said Wednesday.
Lotte Holdings held a board of directors meeting in Tokyo earlier in the day, accepting Shin's call to resign as head of the Japan-based holding company, Lotte said in a statement.
The Lotte Holdings board, however, decided to maintain Shin's position as a board director. The holding company owns a 99-percent share in Hotel Lotte, which serves as the de-facto holding company of Lotte Group.
The resignation came as Shin was put under court custody last week. A South Korean court sentenced Shin to two and a half years in prison for bribery.
Shin was suspected of providing tens of millions of U.S. dollars to Choi Soon-sil, a decades-long friend of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye who was at the center of the influence-peddling scandal resulting in Park's impeachment.
