Even Excluding Roh Tae-woo's 30 Billion Won Slush Fund... "SK Shares Subject to Division"

[Anchor]

The Supreme Court ruling ruled out the alleged 30 billion won gift from Roh Tae-woo as a contribution from Roh Soh-yeong. Even so, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has been ordered to pay a staggering amount close to 1 trillion won. The decisive factor was the court's view that SK shares were jointly acquired and maintained marital property.

This is legal affairs reporter Im Chanjong.

[Reporter]

In October of last year, the Supreme Court remanded part of the appellate court ruling on the divorce lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong concerning property division.

There were two main reasons.

First, the approximately 30 billion won given to Chairman Chey by Roh's father, former President Roh Tae-woo, was deemed illegal funds and thus could not be recognized as Roh's contribution to the formation of assets. Second, assets gifted by Chairman Chey to relatives and others prior to the breakdown of the marriage were not subject to division.

Reflecting the Supreme Court's ruling, the remand trial court stated that Roh Tae-woo's gift would not be factored into calculating the property division ratio, and also excluded assets that Chairman Chey transferred to third parties before the marital breakdown.

Nevertheless, the remand trial court ruled that the amount of property to be divided for Director Roh amounts to 944 billion won.

The decisive factor was the court's decision to classify the shares held by Chairman Chey, including SK shares, as subject to division.

The court stated that even without evaluating Roh Tae-woo's gift as Roh's contribution, the shares held by Chairman Chey were acquired under his name during the marriage, and both parties are recognized as having contributed to their formation, maintenance, and increase in value.

Consequently, the court calculated Director Roh's share at one-third, or approximately 33.3%, of the total, which is only a slight decrease from the 35% set by the second trial.

Given that the appellate court in the second trial had determined the ratio by treating Roh Tae-woo's gift as a contribution to be considered in property division, this is interpreted as the remand court deciding that removing that factor makes no significant difference to the division ratio.

(Video Reporter: Yang Hyun-cheol, Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung)

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