Seoul trial opens for family that runs Lotte

SEOUL - Four members of the family that controls South Korea's troubled retail giant Lotte, including its 94-year-old founder, went on trial on Monday on charges of embezzlement, tax evasion and fraud.

The proceedings against company Chairman Shin Dong-bin, 61, and his brother, sister and father - as well as the patriarch's mistress - come as Lotte, South Korea's fifth-biggest conglomerate, provided land to Seoul to host a US missile defense system.

The trial is the latest blow to the reputations of the family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols, that have powered South Korea's economic growth in recent decades.