On the 24th, at a remand trial for property division between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (left) and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, the court ruled that Chairman Chey must pay Director Roh 944 billion KRW in property division. The photo shows Chairman Chey and Director Roh attending a pleading session on the 26th of last month. [Yonhap News file photo] 

The 944 billion KRW that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) must pay to Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong (65) as property division is considered the largest publicly disclosed amount ever awarded in a divorce lawsuit involving a domestic conglomerate family.

According to legal circles on the 26th, there has been only one instance in the history of publicly known property division rulings for a conglomerate family where the amount exceeded 944 billion KRW.

That instance was the appellate trial prior to the remand, involving Chairman Chey and Director Roh in May 2024. At that time, the 2nd Family Division of the Seoul High Court had ordered Chairman Chey to pay 1.3808 trillion KRW.

However, that ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the "30 billion KRW Roh Tae-woo slush fund" should not be considered a contribution from Director Roh's side, leading to the remand trial ruling of 944 billion KRW on the 24th.

In both the appellate trial and the remand trial, the court's decision to include the SK shares held by Chairman Chey as assets subject to division was the decisive factor in calculating the amount.

The property division ratio of 33.3% recognized for Director Roh is also considered exceptionally high among historical conglomerate divorce cases. Calculating backward, this implies that the total marital assets subject to division amount to approximately 2.9 trillion KRW.

The court recognized that for the 30 years from their marriage in 1988 until 2017, when the marriage officially broke down following Chairman Chey’s filing for divorce mediation, Director Roh contributed to the increase in assets through domestic labor, child-rearing, and external activities related to the management of SK Group.

Under tax law, property division following 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 ordered without a further appeal from Chairman Chey’s side, Director Roh is expected to join the ranks of the wealthiest women in the country.

Following the Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong case, attention is now focused on the divorce lawsuit of Kwon Hyuk-bin, Chief Vision Officer (CVO) of Smilegate and Chairman of the Smilegate Foundation.

This is because Chairman Kwon’s assets are estimated to be in the 8 trillion KRW range.

The first-instance verdict for Chairman Kwon’s divorce lawsuit, which was filed in November 2022, is scheduled for September 9 of this year, approximately four years later.

It is reported that Chairman Kwon’s spouse, identified as Ms. Lee, has requested half of his shares in Smilegate as part of the property division.

Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin (left) and former Samsung Electro-Mechanics executive advisor Im Woo-jae [Yonhap News file photo]Besides these cases, another high-profile divorce case regarding the scale of property division was that of Lee Boo-jin (55), President of Hotel Shilla and eldest daughter of the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, and Im Woo-jae (57), former executive advisor at Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

The two married in August 1999, and their split became public in October 2014 when President Lee filed for divorce mediation.

During the lawsuit, Mr. Im claimed that President Lee’s total assets were worth approximately 2.5 trillion KRW and requested about 1.2 trillion KRW in property division, or roughly half.

At the time, this was the largest claim ever known in a domestic property division lawsuit.

However, in January 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the second-instance ruling that set the property division amount to be paid by President Lee at approximately 14.1 billion KRW. Given the discrepancy between the claim and the final result, the outcome was effectively considered a loss for Mr. Im.

Although the specific reasons for the ruling were not disclosed, analyses suggested that the court determined the shares held by President Lee were not subject to division.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Daesang Vice Chairwoman Lim Se-ryung [Yonhap News file photo]

Cho Hyun-ah (51), former Vice President of Korean Air (who has since changed her name to Cho Seung-yeon), paid 1.33 billion KRW in property division during her divorce from a plastic surgeon surnamed Park.

They married in 2010 and had twins, but their marriage ended when Mr. Park filed for divorce in April 2018, citing verbal and physical abuse by the former Vice President. Ms. Cho filed a counter-suit in June of the following year, claiming that the marriage was difficult due to Mr. Park’s alleged alcoholism.

In November 2022, the first-instance court ordered Ms. Cho to pay 1.33 billion KRW and required Mr. Park to pay 1.2 million KRW per month in child support for each child. As neither party appealed, the ruling was finalized.

In this case as well, the Hanjin Group shares held by the former Vice President were not included as assets for division.

However, Kim Taek-jin (59), CEO of NCSoft, transferred 1.76% of his company shares as property division during his divorce in 2004.

Based on the stock price at the time, this was worth around 30 billion KRW.

There are also cases where the divorce was settled through mediation rather than a lawsuit, leaving the scale of property division undisclosed.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (58) and Daesang Vice Chairwoman Lim Se-ryung (48) divorced in 2009 after 11 years of marriage. Vice Chairwoman Lim filed for divorce, but a mediation settlement was reached within a week.

The divorce between Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin (57) and actress Go Hyun-jung (55) was also concluded through mediation in November 2003.

The two sides reached an agreement just two hours after Ms. Go filed for divorce mediation. It was reported that Chairman Chung agreed to pay Ms. Go 1.5 billion KRW in alimony and that Chairman Chung would retain custody of their children. The scale of property division was not disclosed.