This article was published on the ChosunBiz RM Report site at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2026.
Chair Chey Tae-won of the SK(034730) group filed a further appeal, challenging the remand court's order to pay 944.0 billion won in property division to his former wife, Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong, entirely in cash. As the couple's divorce suit again goes before the Supreme Court, attention is also turning to how overseas business figures such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates divided their assets at the time of their divorces.
The remand court ruled that the SK Co. shares held by Chey should be allocated to Chey, and that Roh's portion should be paid in cash totaling 944.0 billion won. The SK Co. equity directly tied to control of the group was left with Chey. After the ruling, Chey's side proposed paying part of the property division in stock to Roh's side, but Roh's side reportedly maintained a stance for full cash payment.
◇Left the stock to protect control, but… burden of 944.0 billion won in cash
The issue is how to raise cash amounting to 944.0 billion won. Because a significant portion of Chey's assets consists of stock, options floated for securing a large sum of cash in a short period include selling held shares or borrowing funds with shares as collateral.
If SK Co. shares are sold in large blocks, Chey's equity ratio would fall, potentially affecting control of the group. Even if borrowing is done with shares as collateral, there would be an interest burden and potential margin calls for additional collateral if the stock price falls. While the court left SK Co. shares with Chey in consideration of preserving management control, the process of raising cash could again spark governance issues.
◇Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates split with stock... "agreement" was key
In divorces involving well-known overseas business figures, there are cases where stock, not cash, was divided. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, upon divorcing MacKenzie Scott in 2019 after 25 years of marriage, gave Scott 25% of the Amazon shares he held. That was about 4% of Amazon's total equity, worth about 4 trillion won at the time.
However, Bezos was to exercise the voting rights on the shares Scott received. The two also agreed that Bezos would retain all equity in The Washington Post and space corporation Blue Origin. Even while dividing a vast fortune, they minimized the impact on Bezos' management control of Amazon.
MS founder Bill Gates also transferred multiple listed-company shares when he ended his 27-year marriage with Melinda French Gates in 2021. He transferred about $3.2 billion worth of stock immediately after the divorce announcement, and transferred an additional roughly $2.4 billion after the divorce was finalized. Melinda received shares in Canadian National Railway, AutoNation, and Coca-Cola FEMSA of Mexico, among others.
However, the Bezos and Gates cases differ from Chey's in that the parties agreed on how to divide their assets. Chey and Roh failed to agree on how to split their assets, leading the court to determine even the method of partitioning.
Won I-rim, head attorney at Law Office Uirim, said, "In Korea as well, there are cases where, by party agreement, one side receives shares and delegates the voting rights to the other side," adding, "However, dividing assets through shares in several companies, as in Gates' case, is not easy without the two parties' agreement."
◇In the Supreme Court re-appeal, "Director Roh's contribution" could again become a key issue
In the re-appeal, the key issue is expected to be whether there were legal errors in the remand court's recognition of Roh's contribution to the formation of assets.
In the earlier appeal, the Supreme Court found that the 30.0 billion won slush fund of former President Roh Tae-woo should not be recognized as contributing to Roh's asset formation. Following that, the remand court excluded the former president's financial support from the contribution calculation. However, Roh's contribution decreased only slightly, from the previous 35% to about 33.3%.
The Supreme Court is a court of law that determines whether there was a misunderstanding of law in the lower court's ruling, not a fact-finding court that newly examines facts. Chey's side may argue that there are legal issues with the remand court's finding that SK Co. shares should be included in the property division and with recognizing Roh's contribution at roughly one-third.
Ryu Hyun-jung, head attorney at Saeum Law Firm, said, "Even though the Supreme Court held that the former president's financial support should be excluded from the contribution, the remand court did not substantially lower the contribution," adding, "Chey's side may again contest that, along with whether SK Co. shares are subject to property division, the contribution recognized at one-third is excessively high."