KOR
The 944 billion won that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has been ordered to pay to Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong in property division is evaluated as the largest publicly disclosed amount ever set in a chaebol family divorce lawsuit in South Korea.
According to the legal community today (July 26), the only known chaebol property division ruling larger than 944 billion won was in May 2024, during the appellate trial prior to the Supreme Court remand involving Chairman Chey and Director Roh.
At that time, the 2nd Family Division of the Seoul High Court ordered Chairman Chey to pay 1.3808 trillion won. However, that ruling was later remanded by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the "30 billion won Roh Tae-woo slush fund" should not be counted as Director Roh's contribution, leading to the revised remand appellate ruling of 944 billion won on July 24.
The decisive factor in calculating the record-breaking amount in both the appellate and remand appellate trials was the courts' decision to include SK shares held by Chairman Chey as subject to division.
The property division ratio recognized for Director Roh stands at 33.3%, which is considered exceptionally high among past chaebol divorce cases.
Working backward, this implies that the joint marital property subject to division amounts to approximately 2.9 trillion won.
The court recognized Director Roh's contribution to the increase in assets over the 30-year period from their marriage in 1988 until 2017, when Chairman Chey filed for a divorce settlement and their marriage officially broke down, through housework, childcare, and external activities related to the management of SK Group.
Under tax laws, property division resulting from a divorce does not incur gift tax for the recipient.
As the court decided on a cash-based property division, if the assets are divided as is without Chairman Chey filing a re-appeal, Director Roh is expected to rank among South Korea's top female billionaires.
Attention is also focusing on the divorce lawsuit of Kwon Hyuk-bin, Chief Vision Officer (CVO) of Smilegate and Chairman of the Smilegate Hope Studio Foundation, whose fortune is known to be around 8 trillion won.
The first-instance ruling for CVO Kwon's divorce lawsuit, which was filed in November 2022, will be delivered on September 9 of this year, about four years later.
Reportedly, CVO Kwon's spouse, Ms. Lee, has demanded a 50% split of the Smilegate shares.
In the past, the divorce of Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin and Lim Woo-jae, former executive senior managing director at Samsung Electro-Mechanics, also drew attention due to the scale of property division.
The two, who married in August 1999, hit the rocks in October 2014 when President Lee filed for a divorce settlement.
During the lawsuit, former Executive Managing Director Lim claimed that President Lee's total assets amounted to around 2.5 trillion won and demanded a property division of about 1.2 trillion won, roughly half. However, in January 2020, the Supreme Court finalized the second-instance ruling which set the property division amount President Lee had to pay at approximately 14.1 billion won.
Comparing the claimed amount to the final outcome, it was essentially evaluated as a defeat for former Executive Managing Director Lim.
Although specific reasons for the ruling were not made public, analyses suggested the court determined that the shares held by President Lee were not subject to division.
Cho Hyun-ah (formerly Cho Hyun-ah), former Korean Air vice president, paid a much smaller property division of 1.33 billion won in her divorce from plastic surgeon Park.
The two married in 2010 and had twin children, but their marriage ended when Mr. Park filed for divorce in April 2018, citing abusive language and physical assault by former Vice President Cho.
In response, former Vice President Cho filed a cross-lawsuit in June of the following year, claiming that married life had become difficult due to Mr. Park's alcohol addiction.
In November 2022, the first-instance court ordered former Vice President Cho to pay 1.33 billion won and mandated that Mr. Park pay 1.2 million won per month in child support for each child. The ruling was finalized as neither side appealed.
Hanjin Group shares held by former Vice President Cho were not included as subject to division.
On the other hand, NCSoft CEO Kim Tack-jin gifted a 1.76% stake in the company as property division during his divorce in 2004.
Based on the stock price at the time, it was worth around 30 billion won.
Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Lim Se-ryung, vice chairperson of Daesang Holdings, divorced in 2009 after 11 years of marriage. Although Vice Chairperson Lim filed for divorce, a settlement was reached within a week, keeping the scale of the property division undisclosed.
The divorce of Shinsegae Group Chairman Jung Yong-jin and actor Go Hyun-jung was also finalized in November 2003, with an agreement reached just two hours after Go filed for a divorce settlement.
It was reported that Chairman Jung agreed to pay Go 1.5 billion won in alimony while retaining child custody, and the scale of the property division was not made public.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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