Supreme Court to Rule on Kim Keon-hee's 'Three Major Allegations' and Chey Tae-won's 'Divorce of the Century' This Week

The Supreme Court is set to deliver its final rulings this week on cases involving Kim Keon-hee, including allegations of stock manipulation involving Deutsch Motors, the receipt of illicit funds from the Unification Church, and the acceptance of opinion poll results from Myung Tae-kyun.

Also scheduled are the remand trial ruling for the property division lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong (65), and the first-instance ruling for Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon regarding allegations of having his opinion poll expenses paid by a third party.

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Kwon Young-jun, Justice Park Young-jae) will deliver its ruling on Kim's charges, including violations of the Capital Markets Act, at 2:00 p.m. on July 24.

This ruling comes approximately 11 months after the special prosecutor's team indicted Kim in September of last year.

The sentencing hearing will be broadcast live, with the Supreme Court filming the proceedings using its own equipment and transmitting them to broadcasting stations in real time.

Kim is accused of receiving a Graff diamond necklace worth 62 million won and two Chanel bags worth a total of 20 million won from Yoon Young-ho, former secretary-general of the Unification Church, through the shaman known as Geonjin Beopsa (Jeon Seong-bae) between April and July 2022, in exchange for requests to support the religious group.

She also faces charges of participating in Deutsch Motors stock manipulation between October 2010 and December 2012, allegedly gaining 810 million won in unfair profits, and conspiring with former President Yoon Suk Yeol between June 2021 and March 2022 to receive opinion poll results worth 270 million won from Myung Tae-kyun.

The first trial found her partially guilty only on the charges of receiving funds from the Unification Church, sentencing her to one year and eight months in prison.

The second trial overturned this, finding her guilty on all counts, including partial guilt for participating in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation, and increased the sentence to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won.

However, the charge regarding the receipt of opinion poll results from Myung Tae-kyun was judged as not guilty, consistent with the first trial.

The Supreme Court ruling was originally scheduled for July 16 but was postponed to July 24 after the special prosecutor's request for a delay was accepted.

The special prosecutor's team had requested the delay, asking the Supreme Court to review the ruling by the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 33 (Presiding Judge Lee Jin-kwan), which had found former President Yoon, an alleged accomplice in Kim's opinion poll receipt case, guilty.

At the same time on July 24, the Seoul High Court's Family Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-joo) will hold the sentencing hearing for the remand trial of the property division lawsuit between Chairman Chey and Director Roh.

Chairman Chey and Director Roh married in September 1988 and have three children, but have been engaged in a legal battle for nine years, starting with Chairman Chey's filing for divorce mediation in 2017.

In December 2022, the first-instance court for the divorce and property division lawsuit ruled that Chairman Chey should pay Director Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division.

In May 2024, the second trial significantly increased the alimony to 2 billion won and the property division amount to 1.3808 trillion won.

The court determined that because former President Roh Tae-woo's 30 billion won in slush funds and Director Roh's contributions played a role in the growth of SK Group, the 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 retrial, stating that since the former president's slush funds were illegal, they could not be considered as Director Roh's contribution to property division even if they had flowed into SK.

The remand court held its first hearing on January 9 but referred the case to mediation three months later.

However, the mediation failed as the two sides could not narrow their differences on key issues, such as whether SK shares are subject to property division.

Chairman Chey's side maintains that SK shares are separate property formed through inheritance and gifts, and therefore not subject to division.

Conversely, Director Roh's side argues that the shares should be considered joint property subject to division because she supported the management while taking on domestic duties such as child-rearing.

The reference date for property division is also a major issue in the lawsuit.

This is because the valuation of the assets can differ by about five times depending on whether the reference point is April 16, 2024, the date the fact-finding trial (appellate trial) for the divorce lawsuit concluded, or June 26, the date the remand trial concluded.

Based on the conclusion of the fact-finding trial, the SK stock price was 160,000 won, making the value of the SK shares held by Chairman Chey around 2.07 trillion won, whereas the SK stock price was in the 800,000 won range as of the conclusion of the remand trial.

Both sides may appeal to the Supreme Court again if they are dissatisfied with the remand trial ruling.

On July 22, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 22 (Presiding Judge Jo Hyung-woo) will deliver its ruling on the case of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon regarding violations of the Political Funds Act.

Mayor Oh was indicted without detention on December 1 of last year on charges of receiving opinion poll results from Myung 10 times ahead of the April 7, 2021, Seoul mayoral by-election, and having a person known as a long-time supporter, identified as Mr. Kim, pay 33 million won in costs on his behalf.

Vice Mayor Kang Cheol-won and Mr. Kim were also sent to trial on charges of connecting Mayor Oh with Mr. Kim.

During the final hearing on June 17, the special prosecutor's team demanded a sentence of one year and six months in prison and a forfeiture of 33 million won for Mayor Oh, and one year in prison each for former Vice Mayor Kang and Mr. Kim.

Mayor Oh's side has completely denied the charges, stating, "I have never had opinion poll expenses paid by a third party."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.