Supreme Court to hear appeal from SK Chairman Chey on $1 billion divorce ruling

The Supreme Court will begin hearing an appeal from SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won who submitted a 500-page appellate brief to challenge the historic $1 billion divorce ruling on his separation from his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong attend a hearing held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on April 16. [NEWS1]

The Supreme Court will begin hearing an appeal from SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won who submitted a 500-page appellate brief to challenge the historic $1 billion divorce ruling on his separation from his estranged wife Roh Soh-yeong.

The deadline for dismissing the appeal from Chey, which was filed on July 8 and was being reviewed by the Supreme Court, was Friday midnight. However, the court did not make a decision to dismiss the appeal until the deadline.

A dismissal without trial is a judgment that dismisses an appeal without any further trial, confirming the original judgment as is if the reason for the appeal does not meet certain requirements, such as presenting a “serious violation of the law of the original judgment.”

The Supreme Court is now expected to begin a full-scale review of the legal issues of the case.

The main issue is whether Chey’s SK shares are “special property” received from his father. If they are special property inherited or gifted from the former chairman, rather than joint property between Chey and Roh, they are excluded from the division of property.

Additionally, former President Roh Tae-woo’s “slush fund” is another key issue. Whether it actually flowed into SK and whether it affected the group’s growth needs to be determined.

The Seoul High Court ruled on May 30 that Chey must pay 1.38 trillion won ($1 billion) in the division of property and 2 billion won in alimony to Roh Soh-yeong, making it the most expensive divorce suit yet in Korea.

The couple married in September 1988. Chey publicly announced an extramarital partner and a child born out of wedlock in 2015, later filing for a divorce settlement in July 2017.

After failing to reach an agreement, following Roh's opposition, Chey filed for divorce in February 2018. Roh filed a countersuit in December 2019 and claimed 300 million won in alimony and half of the 12,975,472 SK shares held by the group chairman. The two both appealed the first ruling that came out in December 2022. Roh asked for 2 trillion won in cash instead of SK shares in March this year.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]