Near US$1 billion divorce settlement partially overturned by Korean top court

Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and SK Group, speaks during a South Korea-Portugal business forum in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL -- South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday sent SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won’s high-profile divorce case, which required him to pay a record settlement, back to a lower court for review, handing the billionaire businessman a temporary victory.

Last year, the Seoul High Court said Chey should pay 1.38 trillion won (US$972.5 million) to his estranged wife, Roh So-yeong, as part of their planned divorce. In addition to what would have been the country’s largest divorce settlement, the Seoul High Court also ordered Chey to pay Roh 2 billion won in alimony. Chey contested that court’s order.

The Supreme Court kept in place the lower court’s order covering the alimony payment of 2 billion won.

SK Group is South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate with 363 trillion won in assets as of May 2025, according to data from the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Its affiliates include chipmaker SK Hynix 000660.KS.

SK Inc shares closed down 5.6 per cent after the ruling on Thursday.

Analysts said if the court ruling had been upheld, it could have prompted Chey to raise funds by pledging SK shares as collateral — a move that would typically support the stock price.

In 2024, the Seoul High Court said Chey’s shares in holding company SK Inc 034730.KS should be considered part of the couple’s joint property. Roh is the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo.

The court’s ruling raised questions about how Chey would raise the money, given that he was not believed to have easy access to such a large sum of cash as a large part of his net worth is invested in the shares of affiliated companies.

A possible sale of some of his holdings in SK Inc would have likely diminished his control of the holding company and SK Hynix.

The Seoul High Court, an appeals panel, had accepted Roh’s argument that her parents had provided a large amount of money to the Chey family that enabled them to finance the growth of the conglomerate.

In its ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court said the appeals court erred in its decision on the funds provided by Roh’s parents.

It said the 30 billion won was likely amassed by the former president from bribes that he received while in office. As a result, it said Roh is not entitled to claim any assets that grew out of the funds that her father gave to the Cheys around 1991.

The Seoul High Court’s decision in May last year overturned a 2022 ruling by a lower court for a much smaller amount.

Reporting by Joyce Lee, Heejin Kim and Heekyong Yang; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Thomas Derpinghaus, Reuters