Tycoon told to pay $1bn in record divorce ruling
South Korean mogul Chey Tae-won has been mandated to provide his former spouse with 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion; £788 million) in cash, marking the largest divorce settlement in the nation’s history.
This ruling arrives nearly a decade post the dissolution of Mr. Chey’s marriage, which ensued after the disclosure of his extramarital child.
On Thursday, the Seoul High Court decreed that Roh So-young, his spouse of 35 years, merited a stake in his corporate assets.
Mr. Chey’s legal representatives, contending that the court favored Roh’s assertions as truth, announced intentions to challenge the ruling.
The awarded sum to Ms. Roh represents a substantial escalation from the 66.5 billion won settlement decreed by a lower court in 2022.
The preceding family court had rebuffed Ms. Roh’s plea for a share in Mr. Chey’s SK holdings. However, this decision was overturned by the High Court on Thursday, deeming the shares as joint property.
In its verdict, the court stated that “it was reasonable to rule that, as his wife, Roh played a role in increasing the value of SK Group and Chey’s business activity”.
The court put Mr Chey’s wealth at around 4tn won, meaning Ms Roh – with whom Mr. Chey had three children – would take an estimated 35%.
It also found that Ms Roh had helped ease regulatory hurdles for Mr Chey’s business and that her father – former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo – had “played the role of a protective shield” for SK’s ex-chairman Chey Jong-hyon.
The court said Mr Chey had not shown “any signs of remorse for his foul behavior in the course of the trial… nor respect for monogamy” and said the new settlement took into account Ms Roh’s suffering over her ex-husband’s extramarital affair.
Mr Chey’s lawyers argued that, rather than his ex-wife’s political connections enhancing his business, they had been a disadvantage.
Shares in SK Inc – which is one of the world’s biggest makers of semiconductors and also has interests in telecoms, chemicals and energy – jumped 9% following the ruling.
