Lotte Group No 2 found dead amid probe

Lotte Group said on Friday its vice-chairman has been found dead as authorities widen a probe into corruption at South Korea's fifth-largest business group.

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 on Friday morning.

"It is difficult to believe," Lotte Group said in a text message to reporters. Lee had been a Lotte man for more than 40 years since he joined the company's hotel business in 1973.