Chairman of South Korean tech giant SK ordered to pay $640 million in divorce case

SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean court on Friday ordered billionaire SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to pay his ex-wife 944 billion won ($640 million) in a case that the national media dubbed the “divorce of the century.”

The Seoul High Court’s ruling came months after the Supreme Court ordered further review by the appellate court of the divorce case between Chey and Roh So-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo.

The award to Roh, the director of a Seoul art museum, was lower than a 1.38 trillion won ($940 million) settlement ordered by the high court last year. Chey also was previously ordered to pay 2 billion won ($1.3 million) in alimony.

The value of Chey’s assets increased in recent months. Shares of SK Hynix, SK’s semiconductor affiliate, have surged with the global artificial intelligence boom.

The high court’s previous ruling was based in part on its finding that Roh’s father provided SK with 30 billion won ($20.4 million) in alleged slush funds during his presidency. The Supreme Court, however, ruled the funds could not be recognized as a legal contribution to the company’s growth.

Chey and Roh married in 1988 and have three children. Chey filed for divorce in 2017 after revealing he was in a relationship with another woman and had a child with her.

The case can be sent back to the Supreme Court if appeals are filed by Chey or Roh, who did not attend Friday's high court ruling.

Chey is among the South Korean business leaders traveling to the United States with President Lee Jae Myung, who is expected to meet U.S. tech leaders including Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Open AI’s Sam Altman and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang in San Francisco on Friday to promote investment into South Korean AI and semiconductor initiatives.