Lotte Group, a retail-to-chemical conglomerate, said Monday it will carry out its regular personnel appointments early next year after its chief received a suspended sentence for embezzlement and breach of trust.

The delay comes as the Seoul Central District Court on Friday sentenced Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin to 20 months in prison with a two-year suspension of the charges.

The court found the chairman guilty of letting his 95-year-old father's mistress run shops at Lotte Cinema movie theaters and her daughter receive a salary from the group with no actual work contracts being signed.  "

The year-end personnel reshuffling was originally planned right after the court's ruling on Chairman Shin but has been delayed to early next year due to internal matters. Performance reviews on executives are already finished," a company spokesman said. (Yonhap)