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South Korea court orders SK Group boss to pay a record $1 billion divorce settlement
Seoul — The chairman of South Korea’s sprawling SK Group was ordered by a court on Thursday to pay his wife $1 billion in cash in the country’s largest divorce settlement.
The Seoul High Court ordered Chey Tae-won to pay Roh So-young, the daughter of former president Roh Tae-woo, 1.38 trillion won, or slightly over $1 billion, as a settlement, court documents provided to AFP showed.
The amount was a significant increase from an earlier lower court ruling of 66.5 billion won and takes into account the contributions Roh So-young and her father made to Chey’s success.
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty
SK Group runs businesses that include South Korea’s leading mobile carrier and also controls SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker.
“It was reasonable to rule that, as his wife, Roh played a role in increasing the value of SK Group and Chey’s business activity,” the court said in a verdict obtained by AFP.
Chey married Roh So-young in 1988 but they have been separated for years. She appealed against the original settlement amount awarded in 2022, several years after Chey filed for divorce in what has become an acrimonious case.
The court said the new settlement also took into account the emotional suffering Roh So-young endured due to Chey’s extramarital affair.
Chey has a child with his new partner.
The court said Chey “is not showing any signs of remorse for his foul behaviour in the course of the trial… nor respect for monogamy,” ordering him to pay the settlement in cash.
Chey’s net wealth was assessed by the court to be around four trillion won, meaning Roh So-young will take 35 percent of it in the settlement.
His legal team said they would lodge an appeal against the latest ruling, claiming the court had “taken Roh’s one-sided claim as factual”.
The Seoul High Court said Roh Tae-woo also helped Chey’s business flourish during his five years as president from 1988, easing regulatory hurdles for SK’s late former chairman Chey Jong-hyon, Chey Tae-won’s father.
“Former president Roh Tae-woo played the role of a protective shield for ex-chairman Chey Jong-hyon” when the late businessman was trying to tap into the mobile carrier business, the court said, giving “intangible help” to the family.
Chey’s lawyers disagreed, saying SK Group had been under pressure from the Roh government and had “provided various financial contributions”.
“We will set things straight through the appeal,” they said.
A former general, Roh Tae-woo was elected to the presidency in 1987 polls that were South Korea’s first free and fair election in more than a decade.
He had earlier helped his military academy friend Chun Doo-hwan stage a military coup and take over as a dictator.
Roh Tae-woo is less reviled than Chun, in part for the economic growth he oversaw and his diplomatic outreach to the former communist bloc, which saw Seoul establish relations with both Moscow and Beijing.
NEW YORK – The man accused of killing three people when drove drunk into a crowd on the Lower East Side on July 4th was arraigned on a host of charges Saturday.
Daniel Hyden of Monmouth Junction, N.J. is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, manslaughter, assault and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated charges. Hyden was driving with a suspended license, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Hyden, 44, drove a Ford F-150 pickup truck into the crowd at Corlears Hook Park just before 9 p.m. local time. He allegedly ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Water and Cherry Streets, drove up onto the sidewalk, slammed through the chain link fence, and into the crowd.
Eleven people were killed or injured, prosecutors said. The three people killed have been identified as Lucille Pinkney, 59, and her son Herman Pinkney, 38, and Ana Morel, 43. Another person was critically injured, and seven others hospitalized. The youngest victim was 11, according to prosecutors.
Responding police officers say they found Hyden on the ground next to the driver’s-side door, wearing pants but no shirt or shoes. He had bloodshot eyes, was stumbling and there was “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.”
“I hope we get justice”
Photos provided
On Friday, Family members of the victims returned to the scene, some breaking down in tears.
“I hope we get justice for my brother and my mother,” Diamond Pinkney said. “Herman, I love you. I’m going to do you proud.”
“We’re all devastated with this. It breaks my heart, and I’m so sad about it,” neighbor Nereida Garcia said.
Four people were fatally shot and three people were injured in a mass shooting in Kentucky on Saturday, the Florence Police Department said in a statement.
Officers arrived at a private residence at 2:51 a.m. to see seven people shot – and found out the suspect had fled the scene in his car. Police said they located the fleeing suspect and tried to nab him during a traffic stop, but he continued to drive.
A chase ensued, police said, and only ended when the suspect’s car drove into a ditch off the roadway. The suspect was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Three of the victims were taken to UC Health Hospital. They are currently listed in critical but stable condition, officials said.
Everyone was attending a birthday pool party, Florence Church of God, a local church, posted on its social media. One of their congregation’s sisters asked for prayers for her friend whose daughter was killed in the shooting.
“A man came in uninvited on a birthday pool party and killed four people,” the church’s Pastor Campbell wrote.
One of them was a friend’s daughter, the pastor wrote, and “her granddaughter is in the hospital with gunshot wounds.”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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