Move over Yuzvendra Chahal, Dhanashree Verma. This Korean tycoon paid $1 BILLION to his wife after divorce! Details

Move over Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhanashree Verma's divorce. While the cricketer has to pay his estranged wife ₹4.75 crore, this is nothing in comparison with what Korean businessman Chey Tae-won had to pay his wife last year.

South Korean tycoon Chey Tae-won was ordered by a court to pay his ex-wife $1 billion (around ₹85.6 crore) in cash, making it the country's costliest ever divorce settlement.

The divorce settlement also featured in Hurun India Global Rich List 2025.

“Chey Tae-won of SK Group, divorced his wife, Roh Soh-yeong in 2024, with a settlement estimated at US $1bn, making it one of South Korea's largest divorce settlements,” Hurun said in its document released on Thursday, jotting down interesting facts about billionaires.

Chey Tae-won's ₹86-crore divorce

In May 2024, the Seoul High Court asked Chey Tae-won to pay 1.38 trillion won (around ₹85.6 crore) to his ex-wife Roh Soh-yeong in cash.

This came nearly a decade after Chey's marriage fell apart after it was revealed that he had fathered a child with his lover while being married to Roh.

Chey Tae-won was married to Roh So-young for 35 years.

The Seoul High Court also ruled that his ex-wife was entitled to a portion of his company shares.

The court's order made Chey Tae-won's divorce the most expensive in South Korea.

The Seoul High Court also overturned a 2022 decision of a lower court on Roh's plea that she be given a portion of Chey's SK Group shares. It also significantly increased the alimony amount from 66.5 billion won.

The high court in its verdict that “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,” BBC reported.

The updated divorce settlement also took into account Roh's suffering due to Chey's extramarital affair and noted that he did not show “any signs of remorse for his foul behaviour in the course of the trial... nor respect for monogamy”.

Who is Chey Tae-won?

Chey Tae-won is the chairperson of of SK Group, the country's second largest conglomerate. SK Group has 186 subsidiaries SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SK Innovation.

Chey Tae-won is among the richest persons of South Korea.

Born in 1960, Chey Tae-won is the eldest son of Chey Jong-hyun, the erstwhile chairman of the conglomerate. He attended Korea University where he received a bachelor's degree in physics, and later studied for a PhD in economics at University of Chicago.

Chey Tae-won joined the SK Group as a manager. He then went on to work on roles including executive director of SK America, executive director of SK Corp. and vice president of SK Corp.

Following his father's death, Chey took over as the new chairperson of the SK Group at the age of 38.

Chey Tae-won net worth

According to Forbes, Chey Tae-won's real time net worth as of March 28 was $1 billion.

He was convicted of misappropriating company funds in 2013 but was later pardoned by then-president Park Geun-hye.