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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Noh So-young arrive at the Seoul High Court on the afternoon of October 16 to attend an appellate hearing in their divorce case. (Photo: Yonhap News) |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] SEOUL, Oct. 16 — The South Korean Supreme Court’s ruling in the divorce case between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Noh So-young, in which it defined the 300 billion won transferred from former President Roh Tae-woo to the Chey family as bribe money, is expected to influence an ongoing prosecution investigation into the source and handling of the funds.
During the appellate trial, details emerged that former President Roh had transferred 30 billion won to Chey’s family. Following that revelation, civic groups filed a criminal complaint in October 2023, alleging that Noh So-young, her mother Kim Ok-sook, and her brother Noh Jae-heon, director of the East Asia Cultural Center, had concealed portions of the Roh family’s illicit funds, which they estimated at around 126.6 billion won. The complaint was filed under the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Asset Recovery Division, led by Chief Prosecutor Cho Jae-chul, has been handling the case. Investigators reportedly completed interviews with complainants in November and December 2023 and, by April this year, obtained financial account records belonging to Roh’s family to trace the flow of funds.
A prosecution official said,
“We will thoroughly review the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling.”
In a previous probe, prosecutors in 1995 uncovered 418.9 billion won in slush funds linked to former President Roh. In 1997, the Supreme Court sentenced him to 17 years in prison and ordered a 2.63 trillion won forfeiture, which he fully paid in 2013. However, the 30 billion won mentioned in the divorce proceedings was not included in that earlier investigation.
A key challenge now is that both Roh Tae-woo and Chey Jong-hyun, the late former SK Group chairman, are deceased — making criminal prosecution impossible. Moreover, because the funds were transferred before the enactment of the Criminal Proceeds Concealment Act, state confiscation is not legally viable under current law.
In response, the Democratic Party of Korea has proposed a legislative amendment introducing an “independent forfeiture system”, which would allow the government to recover illegally obtained assets even if the suspect has died.
At a National Assembly audit on Wednesday, National Tax Service Commissioner Lim Gwang-hyun said the agency would
“carefully review the Supreme Court ruling and take appropriate measures regarding possible taxation of the funds.”
Legal experts note that unless the proposed amendment passes the National Assembly, further investigative and recovery actions may face legal limitations.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
