Supreme Court to review SK chairman Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong’s divorce suit

The Supreme Court is set to hear the appeal of the divorce case between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Navi director Roh Soh-yeong. As a result, the Supreme Court will deal with the second court's ruling that Chey must divide 1.38 trillion won with Roh.

According to legal circles on November 10, the Supreme Court did not make a decision to dismiss Chey's appeal against the Seoul High Court's July 8 ruling by November 8, the 40-day deadline for dismissing the appeal. Discontinuance of a trial is a decision not to hear the case because there is no problem with the original ruling. Since the deadline for discontinuance of a trial has passed, the case will automatically proceed to trial. The case is being handled by the Supreme Court Division 1.

The key issue in the Supreme Court hearing will be whether SK Group shares are considered unique property. According to the Civil Code, unique property is “the property that one of the spouses had before marriage and property acquired in his or her name before marriage.” Examples include stocks or real estate inherited from parents before marriage. Since it was acquired before marriage, it is not subject to property division in divorce proceedings unless there is a contribution from the spouse after marriage.

Chey argued that “SK Group shares are not subject to property division because they are unique assets that have been gifted and inherited from ancestors.” However, the second trial court did not accept this argument. It reasoned that the account transactions in Chey's name do not clearly prove that he purchased SK shares in the past with his own money. Rather, it was believed that the slush funds for the promissory note worth 30 billion won were used by former president Roh Tae-woo to prosper the group's growth. The court found that former president Roh and his daughter, Roh Soh-young, made tangible and intangible contributions to the formation of Mr. Chey's wealth.

The allegations of former President Roh's SK funding have been raised intermittently, but resurfaced in the couple's divorce case. In the appeal, Roh's side submitted two memos from Roh’s wife, Kim Ok-sook, that read “30 billion won” and six promissory notes worth 5 billion won. The Appellate court acknowledged this as evidence of “tangible contributions” made by Roh to Chey. Accordingly, it ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division, more than 20 times the amount of the first trial.

The Supreme Court is likely to look again at where the 30 billion won came from. During the appeals process, Chey's side has denied that the 30 billion won was funneled to SK. They argued that there is no evidence of when or how the money was transferred, and that prosecutors investigated the allegations in 1995 but found nothing suspicious.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.