▲ Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has appealed a prosecutors' decision not to indict a lawyer representing Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong, who previously claimed that Chey spent more than 100 billion won on his cohabitant.
Chey's legal representatives argued that the stated amount included funds paid to Director Roh and donations for public interest purposes, thereby inflating actual living expense expenditures by more than 50 times.
In an official statement released today (Sept. 15), Chairman Chey's legal team announced that they have filed an appeal against the non-indictment decision regarding defamation charges stemming from the dissemination of false information by attorney A, who represents Director Roh.
Chey's team stated, "The amount spent by Chairman Chey and Director Kim Hee-young on living expenses as of the time of the claim was approximately 2.0 billion won," adding, "This was verified through financial transaction record investigations, explained in detail to the property division court, and known to both Director Roh and attorney A."
They further pointed out, "The 100 billion won cited by attorney A includes expenditures with completely different purposes, as well as funds spent on Director Roh herself and their three children."
Specifically, they explained that while attorney A claimed 20.4 billion won spent from a Kookmin Bank account opened during Chairman Chey's imprisonment was money used for his cohabitant, the account was actually opened for Director Roh, and a significant portion of the expenditures consisted of money taken by Director Roh.
They also argued that contributions and donations for public interest purposes made to organizations such as the ChildFund Korea, Community Chest of Korea, and T&C Foundation were falsely aggregated as gifts.
They also took issue with the inclusion of real estate under Chairman Chey's sole name and artworks.
They stated there is a contradiction in Director Roh's side demanding the division of the same assets as joint marital property in court while claiming in the media that they were assets gifted to Director Kim.
Emphasizing the meaning of the prosecutors' non-indictment decision, they noted, "It was based on a lack of evidence to prove awareness of the falsehood," adding, "Nowhere in the ruling is there any judgment confirming that the disseminated figures are true."
Previously, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which investigated the case, issued a non-indictment decision for attorney A on defamation charges on the 9th due to insufficient evidence.
Attorney A was sued by Chairman Chey after telling reporters during a damages suit filed by Director Roh against Director Kim in November 2023 that "Chairman Chey has spent over 100 billion won on Director Kim alone since 2015."
However, prosecutors concluded that there was a certain basis for attorney A's remarks and that Chairman Chey's side failed to present sufficient opposing evidence to overturn it.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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