Prosecutors will launch a probe into allegations that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's elder brother took bribes in return for wielding his influence in a savings bank scandal, local media reported Wednesday.

Lee Sang-deuk, a six-term lawmaker at the conservative ruling Saenuri Party, is suspected of having received hundreds of millions of won from a lobbyist for the now-suspended Prime Savings Bank.

Operations of the financially troubled savings bank were suspended last year, along with six others.

The fresh allegations against the elder Lee, if proven, will mark the latest in a series of recent corruption scandals implicating the president's key aides and relatives before his conservative ruling party faces key polls this year.

Scores of other political figures and government officials have been implicated in the savings bank scandal, a blow to the conservative party at a time when it struggles to shore up its image ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections.