Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Noh So-young, director of the Art Center Nabi, have received a ruling in their divorce case, while prosecutors continue their investigation into allegations of slush funds linked to former President Noh Tae-woo's family.
According to legal sources on July 24, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Asset Recovery Division has recently requested clarification from Kim Ok-sook, the wife of the late president, regarding certain financial transactions.
Prosecutors are analyzing the authenticity and timing of a memo submitted by Noh during the divorce proceedings, which claims a slush fund of 90.4 billion won.
The investigation has been ongoing since Noh and Kim were reported to the authorities for allegedly hiding slush funds and tax evasion, with the 5.18 Memorial Foundation among the complainants. The complainants assert that Kim illegally gifted funds to her son, Noh Jae-hun, who is the South Korean ambassador to China, and estimate the total hidden slush funds to be around 1.266 trillion won.
Prosecutors must prove the source of the funds and whether the heirs were aware of and utilized them. However, they face challenges in tracing financial flows prior to the 1993 financial real-name system, especially since the late president has passed away and Kim is now 90 years old.
Meanwhile, the Seoul High Court's Family Division 1, presided over by Judge Lee Sang-joo, ruled that Choi must pay Noh 944 billion won as part of the property division.
The court excluded the late president's alleged slush fund of 30 billion won from the property division calculations, stating that even if the funds were transferred to SK, they cannot be considered due to their illegal nature and thus cannot be credited to Noh's contributions.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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