Kwon Hyuk-bin, chief visionary officer of Smilegate and chairman of Hope Studio, has appealed a first-instance divorce ruling that ordered him to transfer about 2.5 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in assets to his former spouse.
"We have filed an appeal against the Seoul Family Court's ruling on the divorce and the division of assets," Kwon's legal representative said on the 28th. "As a head of household who wishes to preserve his family, Kwon will continue his efforts to restore the marriage."
Kwon's side said it cannot accept even the first-instance finding that the marriage had broken down. "The first-instance ruling ignored Kwon's efforts to maintain the marriage and granted the divorce claim by treating factors that arose after the suit was filed — the spouse's unilateral cutting off of contact, her refusal to communicate and the separation caused by the prolonged litigation — as grounds for the breakdown of the marriage," the lawyer said. "We find that conclusion impossible to accept."
Kwon will also contest the ruling that requires him to hand over a 35% stake in Smilegate. "It was sufficiently established during the trial that the spouse never contributed capital to the company, that she had no workspace at the company, and that she never reported for work or performed any duties there," his side said.
"Nevertheless, the first-instance court relied on the spouse's claims without meaningful evidence and ordered a form of asset division that can affect key management decisions at the company, creating significant uncertainty for its overall business operations going forward," the lawyer added. "We intend to seek a fresh ruling from a higher court on the asset division portion of the decision as well."
The Seoul Family Court on Sept. 9 granted the divorce petition filed by Kwon's former spouse, identified only by her surname Lee, and ordered Kwon to transfer 35% of his Smilegate shares plus 65 billion won in cash to her. The court rejected Lee's claim for consolation money.
The division set by the first-instance court amounts to 2.55 trillion won, the largest sum in any divorce case on record in South Korea. The appeal is expected to center on whether the marriage had irretrievably broken down, along with Lee's contribution to building the couple's assets and the lower court's decision to divide the Smilegate stake in kind.
