A South Korean court has ordered gaming tycoon Kwon Hyuk-bin to pay his ex-wife 2.55tr won ($1.87bn; £1.38bn) in assets, marking the largest divorce settlement in the country’s history. Kwon, who founded South Korea’s third-largest video game company Smilegate, is one of the country’s richest men. Bloomberg puts his net worth at $3bn. Smilegate was wholly owned by him until Wednesday when a court ruled that a 35% stake, valued at about 2.5tr won, be transferred to his wife Lee Hwa-jin.
He was also ordered to pay her an additional 65bn won in cash. This settlement is more than double the previous record of 944bn won which tech titan Chey Tae-won was ordered to pay his ex-wife. In filing for divorce with Kwon, Lee had sought a 50% stake in Smilegate. Her lawyers argued that she had helped finance the company at its founding, according to Bloomberg.
Kwon and Lee got married in 2001, a year before he founded Smilegate. Its best-known titles include the first-person shooter game CrossFire and the action role-playing game Lost Ark. Lee also said she spent more than 20 years raising their children and caring for their household. Kwon in turn argued that Lee neither invested nor worked for the company.
Earlier this year, Smilegate published a statement saying all of the company’s initial capital came from Kwon. A Smilegate spokesperson declined to “comment on the major shareholder’s personal matters”. “We will continue to faithfully perform our duties as usual,” they said in a statement cited by The Chosun Daily. Both parties can still challenge the ruling.
In July this year, Chey Tae-won, the chairman of the corporate giant SK Group, was ordered to pay his ex-wife 944bn won which, prior to today’s ruling, was the largest divorce award in Korean history. However, this was later struck down by the Supreme Court who cited a miscalculation that increased the value of the couple’s assets. It has ordered the case to be reviewed.
