Tycoon to pay ex-wife $1.87bn in record South Korea divorce settlement

What the report says

A South Korean court has ordered gaming entrepreneur Kwon Hyuk-bin to transfer assets worth 2.55 trillion won, or about $1.87 billion, to his former wife, Lee Hwa-jin, in what BBC World News said is the largest divorce settlement in the country’s history. The ruling includes a 35% stake in Smilegate, the video game company Kwon founded, as well as 65 billion won in cash.

Kwon built Smilegate into South Korea’s third-largest video game company. The company’s better-known titles include CrossFire and Lost Ark. Bloomberg has valued Kwon’s net worth at about $3 billion. According to the BBC’s report, Smilegate had been wholly owned by Kwon before the court decision.

The case centered partly on whether Lee contributed to the company’s early success. Her lawyers argued she helped finance the business at its founding, while Kwon maintained that she did not invest in or work for the firm. Lee also said she spent more than 20 years raising the couple’s children and managing the household. The BBC reported that the couple married in 2001, a year before Smilegate was founded.

The award exceeds the previous record divorce payout in South Korea, which involved SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won. The ruling can still be challenged, and the case adds to wider public attention on how South Korean courts value company ownership, family contributions and marital property in high-profile divorces.