In August, the vice chairman of South Korea's Lotte Group, Lee In-won, was found dead hours before he was to be questioned in the corruption probe.
Police investigators said the cause of death appeared to be suicide. The 69-year-old Mr Lee was due to be questioned the same day in an inquiry into a possible slush fund and financial irregularities at the company.
Raids on the company's offices have led to the firm pulling out of a share sale worth as much as $4.5bn (£3bn) for its hotel unit.
Lotte Group has more than 90 firms in sectors as diverse as beer, hotels and chemicals, and has annual revenues of about $60bn, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission.
It is Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate and is considered one of Korea's family-run "chaebols" which are known to have complex ownership structures.

Charles Liu, founder and chairman of billion dollar company HAO Capital, told local media on Monday that the MalcolmTurnbull's government's "protectionist" attitude toward Chinese and foreign investment would continue to discourage investors from taking their money there.

Liu, who has invested in Australia for 20 years, said the process surrounding the failed bid for pastoral company S. Kidman and Co. was reminiscent of the "unfortunate trend" of closing the door on Chinese money by other Western nations.

"(The government) should have made clear at the beginning (of the Kidman & Co. bidding process) -- if that were the case - that a Chinese bid would not be acceptable," Liu told The Australian newspaper.

"If this is the attitude of the Australian government, one has to totally give up on the Kidman deal."

He added that Australia's previous Tony Abbott-led federal government which put together the historic China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) "was quite supportive, and then came the change of the administration".

Liu said Australia seemed to be heading down the same path as other Western nations which have been hesitant to fully embrace a global marketplace and economy, adding that his concerns were shared by "many people in China".

"This is an unfortunate trend developing in Western countries today, with de-globalization and xenophobia, populism and protectionism on the march," Liu said.

"Domestic politics in the West, including in Australia, is increasingly heading in that direction the massive change under way in countries' ethnic composition."

"It's unfortunate that entrepreneurial and hardworking Chinese people get caught up in this negativity, everyone being lumped together."

Liu said Australia should continue to embrace Chinese money as "there aren't so many people with deep pockets any more except the Chinese".

"If people take a positive attitude, then an overwhelming amount of business can be done," he said.

Gus Wenner, head of digital at Wenner Media, said the company sees "enormous opportunity" for Rolling Stone to enter "new areas of business." Wenner's father, Jann Wenner, is the magazine's co-founder.
The deal is being positioned as a chance for Rolling Stone to move into digital and retail, and to expand its influence in Asia.
In its announcement Sunday, Rolling Stone said an international subsidiary will be created and headquartered in Singapore.

The magazine retracted a 2014 piece called "A Rape On Campus," about an alleged frat house gang rape at the University of Virginia, after doubts surfaced about the veracity of the primary source's claims.
An administrator at the university is suing the magazine for defamation, seeking millions in damages. A separate lawsuit brought by members of the fraternity was dismissed.

Cranking up production is actually the opposite of what Beijing wants to do for Chinese coal. For months the Chinese government has tried to rectify overcapacity by mandating production cuts and shutting debt-ridden mines that are close to the end of their lives. Beijing has also limited coal mines to operating a maximum 276 days a year.

How will the increase in thermal coal output affect coking coal prices in China? According to the Financial Times it won't necessarily resolve the supply squeeze of coking coal, which tightens up in winter when cold weather slows mining operations northern China and Mongolia. However, increasing the nation's output of thermal coal will "help keep a lid on coal prices in China, reducing pressure on thermal power generators and preventing the rally in coal prices from feeding through to the power sector."

Meanwhile on Saturday, the State Council of the Chinese government approved the merger of Baosteel and Wuhan Iron and Steel. The combined entity will be the largest steel company in China and the second largest in the world, after European steel giant ArcelorMittal, CCTV reported.