'Divorce of the Century': Kwon Hyuk-bin Ordered to Divide 2.55 Trillion Won in Assets... Ex-wife Responds

Ex-wife's Side: "Grateful for Court's Asset Division Ruling"
"Disappointed with the Percentage... Appeal Decision to Come Later"

The legal representative of Ms. Lee, the ex-wife of Kwon Hyuk Bin, owner of domestic game company Smilegate and chairman of Hope Studio, who has filed for divorce and is set to receive property division worth 2.5 trillion won, said, "We are grateful for the court's decision, but regret the percentage determined."

Kwon Hyuk Bin, owner of Smilegate, a domestic game company, and Chairman of Hope Studio. Photo by Yonhap News

On September 9, Ms. Lee’s legal counsel told Yonhap News, "The court has recognized much of the plaintiff’s contribution as a co-founder." The representative added, "We believe it is positive that the court dismissed the defendant’s (Chairman Kwon’s) claim of having no responsibility in the breakdown of the marriage and that the company’s value was objectively assessed."

"Regretful about the 35% share despite being a co-founder... Appeal decision to come later"

However, regarding being awarded only 35% of Smilegate's shares instead of the 50% originally requested as a co-founder, the representative stated, "Unlike the Choi Tae-won–Roh So-young divorce case, this case involved a co-founder, yet a similar property division ratio was calculated, which is disappointing."

The representative continued, "Since the total amount for the property division is extremely large, it appears the court may have felt some pressure," adding, "We will finalize our plan on a possible appeal after receiving the written judgement."

'Largest Ever' 2.5 Trillion Won Property Division... Surpassing Choi Tae-won

On this day, the 3rd Family Division of the Seoul Family Court (Presiding Judge Jeong Dong-hyuk) ruled in favor of Ms. Lee’s divorce claim against Chairman Kwon, ordering, "The defendant (Chairman Kwon) must provide the plaintiff (Ms. Lee) with 35% of Smilegate's shares in kind as well as 65 billion won in cash as property division."

The court assessed the value of Chairman Kwon’s shares at approximately 7.1049 trillion won. If 35% of this (about 2.4867 trillion won) and 65 billion won in cash are combined, the property division amounts to about 2.55 trillion won. With this ruling, a new record was set, far surpassing the previous largest sum of 944 billion won in the retrial of the Choi Tae-won (Chairman of SK Group) and Roh So-young (Director of Art Center Nabi) case.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.