Landmark SK Chairman, Roh Soh-yeong Property Division Remand Ruling Expected Today After 9 Years

The remand ruling on the high-profile property division lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong is set to be delivered.

The 1st Family Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-joo) will hold the sentencing hearing for the remand trial on the property division lawsuit at 2:00 p.m. today.

This comes nine years after their legal battle began in July 2017, when Chairman Chey filed for a divorce mediation.

Chairman Chey and Director Roh, who married in September 1988 and have three children together, ultimately faced the breakdown of their marriage.

In 2015, Chairman Chey revealed through the media that he and Director Roh had lived with a deep divide for over a decade and disclosed the existence of a child born out of wedlock.

Chairman Chey applied for divorce mediation in July 2017, which broke down, leading him to file a formal lawsuit in February 2018. In response, Director Roh filed a countersuit in December 2019 stating that she would agree to a divorce.

In the first trial of the divorce lawsuit in December 2022, the court ordered Chairman Chey to pay Director Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division. However, in the second trial in May 2024, the alimony was substantially increased to 2 billion won, and the property division amount surged to 1.3808 trillion won.

The appellate court ruled that because former President Roh Tae-woo's "30 billion won in slush funds" and Director Roh's contributions helped fuel SK Group's growth, shares of SK Inc. held by Chairman Chey were also subject to property division.

However, in October of last year, the Supreme Court sent the case back for reconsideration, ruling that because former President Roh's slush funds were illegal money, even if they flowed into SK, they could not be factored in as a contribution by Director Roh in the property division.

As the second trial's ruling designating 2 billion won in alimony was finalized, only the property division is being handled in this remand trial.

After holding its first hearing on January 9, the remand trial court referred the case to mediation three months later, but the mediation fell through as both sides failed to narrow their differences.

The court closed the pleading procedures on June 26 and set the sentencing date.

The key issues of this lawsuit are whether the SK shares held by Chairman Chey are subject to division and, if so, how the division ratio should be calculated.

Chairman Chey's side has argued that SK shares are special property acquired through inheritance and gifts, and thus are not subject to division.

On the other hand, Director Roh's side has countered that they should be viewed as joint property subject to division because she supported management while taking charge of childcare and household labor.

The benchmark date for property division is another variable.

This is because the total valuation could vary by more than fivefold depending on whether the reference point is set as April 16, 2024—the closing date of pleadings in the factual inquiry (appeals) stage of the divorce lawsuit—or June 26 of last year, the closing date of pleadings in the remand trial.

Based on the closing date of factual inquiry pleadings, SK's stock price stood at 160,000 won, valuing Chairman Chey's SK shares at around 2.07 trillion won, whereas SK's stock price stood in the 800,000 won range based on the closing date of the remand trial pleadings.

If either side objects to today's remand ruling, they can re-appeal to the Supreme Court.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.