Chey Tae-won Faces Decision on 944 Billion Won Settlement for Roh Soh-young: Final Verdict Expected Today Without Appeal

The property division lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-young (65) is set to reach a conclusion today, August 14, after some nine years.

Today (August 14) marks the final day of the appeal period following the remand retrial ruling on their property division lawsuit.

If either side submits an appeal by the end of the day, the case will return to the Supreme Court for review.

If neither side files an appeal by 11:59:59 PM today, the remand ruling ordering Chairman Chey to pay 944 billion won in cash to Director Roh will be finalized starting at midnight on August 15.

If Chairman Chey fails to make the payment on time, an annual interest rate of 5 percent will be charged from the day after the ruling is finalized until the debt is fully paid off. This amounts to approximately 47.2 billion won per year, or about 130 million won per day.

Accordingly, the prevailing interpretation within the legal community is that late interest will begin to accrue on August 16, the day after the ruling is finalized on August 15.

However, some analysts suggest that under Article 157 of the Civil Act, which stipulates that the first day is included when a period begins at midnight, August 15 should also be considered a date on which late interest accrues.

As of today, neither side has publicly disclosed its stance on whether it will file an appeal.

Given that the remand ruling is widely analyzed as a decisive victory for Director Roh, the legal community expects the likelihood of Director Roh filing an appeal to be low.

On the other hand, some observers speculate that Chairman Chey may file an appeal to avoid the burden of late interest and buy time to secure the cash.

Chairman Chey, the eldest son of the late SK Group Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, and Director Roh, the daughter of the late former President Roh Tae-woo, met while studying at the University of Chicago, married in 1988, and have three children.

Dubbed the "wedding of the century," the marriage drew widespread attention until 2015, when Chairman Chey sent a letter to a daily newspaper revealing the existence of a child out of wedlock, making their separation public.

Afterward, in 2017, Chairman Chey filed for a divorce mediation, which fell through, leading to a formal lawsuit in February of the following year.

Director Roh filed a counter-suit in December 2019, stating that she would agree to a divorce.

In December 2022, the first instance of the divorce trial ordered Chairman Chey to pay Director Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division.

The court at the time ruled that SK shares held by Chairman Chey were unique property not subject to division.

In May 2024, the second instance substantially increased the alimony Chairman Chey must pay to 2 billion won and the property division amount to 1.3808 trillion won.

The court determined that former President Roh's "30 billion won slush fund" and Director Roh's contributions had helped grow SK Group, making SK shares subject to property division.

However, in October of last year, the Supreme Court sent the case back for a retrial, ruling that former President Roh's slush fund was illegal money and therefore could not be factored in as Director Roh's contribution to property division, even if it had flowed into SK.

At that time, the second-instance ruling setting alimony at 2 billion won was finalized as is, leaving only property division to be addressed in the remand retrial.

On July 24, the remand retrial panel followed the Supreme Court's ruling rationale while determining that the SK shares held by Chairman Chey were indeed subject to property division, calculating the division amount at 944 billion won.

This is evaluated as the largest property division amount ever recorded in a chaebol divorce lawsuit made public in South Korea.

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