Estranged wife of SK Group chairman raises alimony claim to $1.5 billion

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Estranged wife of SK Group chairman raises alimony claim to $1.5 billion

Published: 10 Jan. 2024, 15:36

KIM JU-YEON
kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong will meet for their first formal appeal trial to settle their divorce on Thursday. [YONHAP]

Roh Soh-yeong, the estranged wife of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, has increased her claim of alimony to 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in cash instead of shares of SK.

The judges presiding over their settlement case issued an order to raise the court fees to 4.7 billion won, up from the 3.4 billion won ordered in the first court, according to the legal industry on Wednesday.

Calculating the amount in reverse based on the Act on the Stamps Attached for Civil Litigation and the Family Litigation Act, the total amount of Roh’s claim in alimony is expected to amount to 2.3 trillion won.

The 3 billion won is likely the amount that Roh had demanded in compensation for the mental stress that Chey’s live-in partner Kim Hee-young inflicted on her, in a suit filed by Roh against Kim in March.

Roh had previously asked for half of SK’s 12,975,472 shares held by Chey and 300 million won in alimony in the first trial. The change in claims is analyzed to have reflected the decline of stock values and an additional amount identified during the appeal process.

SK’s shares dropped from 200,000 won in December 2022, when the first trial took place, to 160,000 won in January this year. The value of the shares that had been initially requested thus fell from 1.36 trillion won to 1.1 trillion won.

The additional amount is interpreted to have been requested after Chairman Chey’s bank financial transactions were revealed, which were submitted after the appellate court’s order.

It was ruled in the first trial in December 2022 that Chey should pay 66.5 billion won in property division to Roh, and that both pay 100 million won each in alimony. Neither agreed with the decision, and after Roh appealed against the ruling on Dec. 19, Chey also filed an appeal three days later.

The two will meet in court for the first formal appeal trial at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Chey married Roh in 1988, but publicly announced a new relationship and a daughter born out of wedlock in 2015. Art Center Nabi director Roh is the daughter of late President Roh Tae-woo.

BY HAN YOUNG-HYE, KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]