SK Group: Tech titan Chey Tae-won ordered to pay ex-wife $644m in divorce settlement

by | Jul 24, 2026 | Top Stories

SK Group: Tech titan Chey Tae-won ordered to pay ex-wife $644m in divorce settlement

A South Korean court has issued a verdict requiring SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won to transfer 944 billion won to his former spouse Roh Soh-yeong in connection with their divorce proceedings. The amount represents a substantial reduction from a previous court decision that had ordered him to pay 1.38 trillion won. The couple had been married for 35 years before their separation, which followed the public disclosure that Chey had fathered a child with another woman more than a decade earlier.

The case has drawn significant public attention in South Korea due to the prominence of the individuals involved and the substantial sums at stake. Roh’s legal team had argued during earlier proceedings that Chey benefited considerably from support provided by her father, Roh Tae-woo, who served as president between 1988 to 1993. At that time, the court had concluded that funds from the former president’s accounts had assisted Chey’s business endeavors. However, the Supreme Court subsequently overturned this determination, finding that the funds in question had been illegally obtained and therefore could not be factored into asset division calculations.

Chey’s legal representatives indicated that their client regrets the disruption the proceedings have caused. The final settlement still requires formal finalization in the coming period. SK Group, one of South Korea’s major family-controlled conglomerates, has grown substantially since its establishment as a textile enterprise in 1953. The group has expanded into multiple sectors and ranks as the country’s second-largest chaebol by overall influence. Its semiconductor subsidiary SK Hynix has become particularly prominent due to its role supplying chips for artificial intelligence applications, with the company recently achieving a major listing on the New York stock exchange.

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