Chey Tae-won’s Challenge to the 100 Billion Won Spending Claim

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won wants a higher prosecution office to review a decision not to indict Lee Sang-won, a lawyer for Chey’s estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong. The dispute is not simply over whether Lee can be prosecuted: Chey’s lawyers also object to treating the decision as confirmation that Lee’s claim about spending on Chey’s partner was accurate. 811

The claim behind the appeal

During Roh’s damages lawsuit against Chey’s partner, Kim Hee-young, Lee said in November 2023 that Chey had spent more than 100 billion won on Kim since 2015. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office decided on Sept. 9, 2026, not to indict Lee on Chey’s defamation complaint. Chey’s representatives announced their appeal on Sept. 15. 691112

Chey’s lawyers draw a distinction between insufficient evidence to show that Lee knowingly made a false statement and a finding that his figure was correct. They say prosecutors reached the former conclusion, not the latter, and are seeking another review. 8

Why Chey’s lawyers dispute the total

Chey’s side says financial records submitted in the property-division proceedings showed about 2 billion won in shared living expenses for Chey and Kim at the time Lee made his claim. His lawyers say Roh and Lee knew of those records and argue that describing a broader set of transactions as money spent on Kim inflated the figure by more than fiftyfold. The 2 billion won amount is their characterization of shared living expenses—not an independently established total for every expense connected with Kim. 5

They object in particular to counting payments to Roh and the couple’s three children; a reported 20.4 billion won withdrawn from a Kookmin Bank account established for Roh during Chey’s imprisonment; charitable donations, including to ChildFund Korea, the Community Chest of Korea and the T&C Foundation; and homes and artworks registered to Chey. Their argument is that family support, charitable spending and assets Chey still owned should not all be presented as money spent on Kim. Chey’s lawyers also say Roh sought to count some of those assets as marital property. These are arguments about how to classify the spending, not findings that every disputed item was unrelated to Kim. 111214

Prosecutors reportedly considered some Kim-related expenditures relevant but found insufficient grounds to indict Lee. A ruling concerning a similar claim has also been described as finding exaggeration without establishing criminal defamation. Neither point independently verifies the 100 billion won figure, and Chey’s objections do not by themselves prove Lee committed a crime. 91214

A separate, narrower divorce appeal

Chey’s challenge to Lee’s non-indictment is distinct from his Supreme Court appeal over the divorce property division. He has stopped contesting 700 billion won of the Seoul High Court’s 944 billion won award to Roh, leaving 244 billion won at issue in that appeal. 13