South Korean Court Orders SK Group Chairman to Pay Massive Divorce Settlement
In a landmark ruling that has captured the nation’s attention, a South Korean court has mandated billionaire Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, to provide his ex-wife a substantial settlement of 944 billion won (approximately $640 million). Dubbed by the media as the “divorce of the century,” this case has been closely followed due to its high-profile nature.
On Friday, the Seoul High Court delivered its decision, revising down the previous settlement amount from a staggering 1.38 trillion won ($940 million) that was issued last year. The Supreme Court had earlier instructed the appellate court to reassess the case involving Chey and Roh So-yeong, who is the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. Additionally, Chey is required to pay 2 billion won ($1.3 million) in alimony.
The reduction in the settlement amount comes amid a surge in the value of Chey’s assets, particularly from SK Hynix, SK’s semiconductor subsidiary, which has benefited from the global boom in artificial intelligence.
The initial decision by the high court had partly relied on assertions that funds amounting to 30 billion won ($20.4 million) were provided to SK by Roh’s father during his presidency, which were deemed as slush funds. The Supreme Court, however, did not acknowledge these funds as a legitimate contribution to the company’s development.
Chey and Roh, who tied the knot in 1988 and share three children, have been embroiled in divorce proceedings since 2017, following Chey’s admission of having a relationship with another woman and fathering a child with her.
There remains a possibility for the case to return to the Supreme Court should either party choose to appeal the latest ruling. Neither Chey nor Roh was present for the court’s decision on Friday.
In other developments, Chey is part of a group of South Korean business leaders accompanying President Lee Jae Myung on a visit to the United States. The delegation is anticipated to engage with prominent technology figures such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang in San Francisco. The discussions aim to bolster investment in South Korean AI and semiconductor initiatives.
