A court in South Korea ruled on Friday, July 24, 2026, that SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won must pay 944 billion South Korean won to his former wife, Roh Soh-yeong. That is roughly $640 million USD, according to Reuters, or about $644 million USD as reported by the Korea Herald and the Straits Times. The Straits Times also placed the sum at S$831 million in Singapore dollars.

The ruling reduced the payout from a prior judgment, according to the Straits Times. The case has taken a long path through the courts. On May 30, 2024, a South Korean court first ordered Chey to pay more than $1 billion to Roh as part of their divorce. That judgment was then reviewed by the Supreme Court, which on or about October 16, 2025, partially overturned the ruling and sent the case back to a lower court. The Supreme Court also ordered Chey to pay 2 billion won in alimony to Roh, as Reuters reported. After the case was sent back, a Seoul appeals court resumed hearings in June 2026, leading to the July 24 judgment.

The drop from the original 2024 award of over $1 billion to the current 944 billion won reflects the Supreme Court's intervention. By partially overturning the earlier ruling and sending the case back, the Supreme Court required the lower court to recalculate the division of marital assets, resulting in a reduced though still very large obligation for Chey. The 2 billion won alimony component ordered by the Supreme Court sits alongside the appellate court's property-division award.

Chey Tae-won is the chairman of SK Group, one of South Korea's largest chaebol. Chaebol are large, family-controlled business groups that dominate South Korea's economy — think of them as enormous family-run empires that own companies across many industries.

The broader context here is what happens when family law meets corporate control. In South Korea, the heads of chaebol families often hold their grip on dozens of companies through layers of ownership and cross-shareholdings — where companies within the same group own stakes in each other, creating a chain of control. A divorce settlement of this size could force Chey to sell or transfer some of those ownership stakes, potentially weakening his hold on the group. While the verified facts do not detail the specific SK Inc. shareholdings or cross-holding structures at issue, the figure of 944 billion won constitutes a large enough transfer of wealth that it could affect Chey's ability to maintain his ownership position.

The case also shows how South Korea's court system handles very large divorce disputes. The Supreme Court's decision to partially overturn rather than fully accept or reject the original 2024 ruling signaled that the earlier court's method for valuing and dividing the couple's assets needed correction. The appellate court's resumed hearings in June 2026 were the mechanism for making that correction, and the July 24 ruling is the result.

How Chey and SK Group's leadership respond to the ruling, including whether the judgment is appealed to the Supreme Court for a second time or accepted as final, will determine the stability of the group's governance structure going forward. The procedural history, with its multiple layers of review, suggests that either party may seek further judicial scrutiny before the matter is fully resolved.

The currency-conversion discrepancy between Reuters' $640 million figure and the Korea Herald and Straits Times' $644 million figure reflects the volatility of the won-dollar exchange rate and the timing of each outlet's conversion. Both figures correspond to the same 944 billion won awarded by the court.