The court on Friday ordered the businessman to pay his ex-wife Roh Soh-yeong about 645 million US dollars (about 550 million euros) – significantly less than the almost 1 billion dollars she demanded.
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65-year-old Chey Tae-won, who heads one of South Korea’s largest business conglomerates, SK, accumulated a significant portion of his wealth due to the growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The value of shares in SK Hynix, a key supplier of Nvidia chips, increased particularly.
Before the court’s decision, Chey’s assets were estimated at approximately 5 billion US dollars. His ex-wife sought to claim half of her husband’s assets, but the appellate court decided to award her about a third of the amount, calculated based on the businessman’s asset value before the massive surge in SK Hynix shares during the AI boom.
Chey Tae-won’s lawyers stated that they are reviewing the decision and did not rule out the possibility of appealing to the Supreme Court of South Korea.
The long-running divorce drama began in 2015 when Chey publicly admitted to having an affair and a child with another woman. In a three-page letter published in a South Korean newspaper, he wrote that he wanted a ‘clean end’ to his 27-year marriage.
This news shook the country – the couple’s marriage had until then been considered a true ‘union of the century’ in South Korea. Chey and Roh married in 1988, just a few months after Roh’s father, Roh Tae-woo, became the country’s president. The wedding took place at the presidential residence, the ‘Blue House,’ and united two of the country’s most influential families – one of the most powerful business dynasties and the then-presidential family.
Initially, Roh Soh-yeong said she would seek to preserve the family and opposed the divorce, but later changed her stance and demanded a share of her ex-husband’s assets.
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The other woman – Kim Hee-young, who uses the name Chloe in public – became Chey’s long-term partner. Roh later sued her for infidelity, and the court ordered Chey and Kim to jointly pay about 1.5 million US dollars in damages. It was acknowledged that the affair and the child born out of wedlock contributed to the breakdown of the couple’s relationship.
Later, the divorce case escalated into a dispute over the origin of the SK business empire itself. Roh’s lawyers presented a handwritten note, allegedly preserved by her mother. It contained an amount – 30 billion South Korean won – next to the former SK name ‘Sunkyong’.
Roh’s side claimed that this document allegedly proves that her father secretly transferred money to Chey’s father, thus helping the family business expand. Chey’s representatives denied these accusations, stating that SK never received such funds.
The dispute further escalated when SK Hynix became one of the biggest winners of the artificial intelligence boom. The company’s memory chips became crucial components for AI systems, leading to a significant increase in its stock value – which also substantially boosted Chey Tae-won’s wealth.
Thus, a case spanning over a decade, intertwining a billion-dollar business, political family influence, and a public infidelity scandal, culminated in one of the most expensive divorce settlements in South Korean history.
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