The retrial on remand for asset partitioning between Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, begins on the 9th. This retrial on remand comes about three months after the Supreme Court in Oct. last year overturned the appellate ruling ordering Chey to pay Roh 1.3808 trillion won as asset partitioning and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court.
According to legal sources, the Seoul High Court's Family Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-joo) will hold the first hearing in the retrial on remand over asset partitioning between Chey and Roh at about 5:20 p.m. today. The proceedings are expected to be closed to the public.
Roh plans to appear in person today and state her views in court. Both sides submitted preparatory briefs on the 7th. Chey's side also filed an opinion on procedural matters.
Key issues in this retrial on remand are whether Chey's equity in SK Corp. is subject to partitioning and how much to recognize Roh's contribution to Chey's assets.
The first- and second-instance rulings diverged widely. In Dec. 2022, the trial court ruled that Chey should pay Roh 1 billion won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash as asset partitioning. However, in May 2024, the appellate court ruled that Chey should pay Roh 2 billion won in alimony and 1.3808 trillion won as asset partitioning. By overturning the first-instance finding that Chey's equity in SK Corp. was not subject to partitioning, the partitioning amount increased twentyfold (66.5 billion won → 1.3 trillion won). At the time, the appellate bench found that 30 billion won in slush funds flowed to former chairman Choi Jong-hyun and, together with his existing assets, became seed money for the then Sunkyong (SK) Group.
In Oct. last year, however, the Supreme Court's First Division (with Justice Seo Kyung-hwan presiding) accepted Chey's appeal and overturned the appellate ruling premised on 30 billion won in slush funds from former President Roh Tae-woo allegedly having flowed to SK. While the Supreme Court did not rule on the existence of the "Roh Tae-woo slush funds," it found that even if 30 billion won from former President Roh had flowed to SK Group, it appears to be illegal bribery and therefore cannot be recognized as Roh's contribution in asset partitioning. The Supreme Court held that the lower court should assess a lower contribution by Roh in the accumulation of assets and recalculate the asset partitioning amount.
However, it upheld the award of 2 billion won in alimony, finding no error in the lower court's decision and dismissing the appeal.
Accordingly, in this retrial on remand, the bench is expected to exclude the "Roh Tae-woo slush funds" from Roh's contribution and reassess the asset partitioning ratio in line with the Supreme Court's remand order.
Meanwhile, Chey and Roh married in Sept. 1988 and had three children but later separated. In 2015, Chey told the media that he had "lived with a deep rift with Director Roh for more than 10 years," revealing the existence of a child born out of wedlock. In July 2017, Chey filed for divorce mediation for an uncontested divorce against Roh, but when no agreement was reached in Feb. 2018, the case proceeded to a formal lawsuit. In Dec. 2019, Roh filed a countersuit, saying she would consent to divorce.