World3 min(s) read
Billionaire ordered to pay $645 million after leaving wife for younger woman
In one of the highest-profile non-celeb divorces, South Korean billionaire Chey Tae-Won has been ordered to pay his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong, an eye-watering sum of money after leaving her for another woman.
The Seoul appeals court ordered the tech mogul to pay his wife of nearly four decades $645 million. The decision is just the latest development in a legal battle that has lasted over 10 years and has been dubbed South Korea's "divorce of the century".
Chey, 65, is the chairman of SK Group, one of South Korea's largest corporate groups, whose businesses include SK Hynix, telecommunications company SK Telecom and SK On.
The couple were extremely wealthy and well-connected
The businessman and Roh, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, married in 1988 and had three children together.
Their relationship made headlines in 2015, when Chey publicly revealed in a three-page letter published by a newspaper that he had been having an affair with another woman and had fathered a child with her.
The shocking revelation led to the breakdown of the couple's marriage and sparked a lengthy legal battle over their huge wealth.
At first, Roh was after a substantial share of Chey's wealth, with many figures thrown around throughout the court proceedings. Finally, they have settled on 944 billion won, around $645 million, in cash.
The number was reached after a Supreme Court decision ruled that the value of the couple's marital assets must be reconsidered. The court recognized that assets accumulated during the marriage, including interests connected to SK Group, should be taken into account when dividing their wealth.
Many different sums were argued over before the court decided on the payout
Sadly for Roh, the new sum is lower than the $1 billion settlement ordered in an earlier ruling. The dispute has attracted widespread attention in South Korea because of the couple's prominent social and political connections, as well as the enormous value of the assets involved.
Chey's fortune has also been boosted by the rapid growth of SK Hynix, a large supplier of memory chips used in AI technology. His wealth was estimated at around $5 billion before the latest ruling.
According to the BBC, Chey's lawyers have expressed regret over the length of the proceedings and said they would carefully review the court's decision. His team said: "Chairman Chey Tae-won is deeply sorry in that [the divorce] proceedings so far have caused concern to many people. We will share specific response to the verdict after we closely review the ruling."
His lawyers have not ruled out pursuing another appeal, meaning the legal battle may not yet be completely over.
The case has received so much media attention because it is a prime example of how complex divorce and the division of wealth are in South Korea. This is partly because family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebols play a major role in the country's economy.
The New York Post reported that Chey is still in a relationship with the woman he had an affair with.


















