▲ SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong
The second mediation session for the remand trial regarding the property division between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (66) and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong (65) will be held on June 15.
The Seoul High Court's Family Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-joo) is scheduled to hold the second mediation session for Chairman Chey and Director Roh on June 15.
Both Chairman Chey and Director Roh are expected to attend the session.
This will be the first time the two have met in court in approximately two years and two months, since the final hearing of the appellate trial in April 2024.
Only Director Roh attended the first mediation session held about a month ago. It is reported that the court set the date for the next session to ensure both Chairman Chey and Director Roh could attend.
During the second session, both sides are expected to begin full-scale discussions on the scale, method, and criteria for the property division.
The first mediation session concluded after one hour, with both sides merely confirming their respective positions.
A key issue is whether SK shares, which have recently surged in price, will be recognized as subject to division, and if so, whether the recent price surge will affect the valuation.
This is because the value could differ by more than three times depending on whether the reference date for property division is set as April 16, 2024—the conclusion of the fact-finding (appellate) trial—or the conclusion of the ongoing remand trial.
Based on the conclusion of the fact-finding trial, the price of SK shares was 160,000 won, making the value of the SK shares held by Chairman Chey approximately 2.07 trillion won. However, as the recent price of SK shares has risen significantly to the 600,000 won level, the total value has also increased substantially.
Chairman Chey's side maintains that the shares are "separate property" acquired through inheritance and gifts and are therefore not subject to division. In contrast, Director Roh's side argues that they should be considered joint property, as she supported the management while taking charge of child-rearing and household duties.
Previously, in December 2022, the first trial ruled that Chairman Chey's SK shares were not subject to division, ordering him to pay 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division.
The second trial significantly increased this amount, ruling that he should pay 2 billion won in alimony and 1.3808 trillion won for property division.
The court reasoned that SK shares could not be viewed as Chairman Chey's separate property, citing that 30 billion won, presumed to be slush funds from former President Roh Tae-woo (Director Roh's father), had flowed to the late Chairman Chey Jong-hyon (Chairman Chey's father) and served as seed money for the growth of SK Group.
However, in October last year, the Supreme Court remanded the case for reconsideration, stating that since the slush funds of former President Roh Tae-woo were illegal, they could not be considered as Director Roh's contribution to property division, even if they had flowed into SK.
The Supreme Court did, however, dismiss the appeal regarding the 2 billion won in alimony, confirming that portion of the ruling.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.