Chey's side calls W100b spending claim 'fake news,' files appeal

The camp of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won filed an appeal Tuesday against a claim by attorney Lee, a legal representative for Art Center Nabi Director Noh So-young, that Chey spent more than 100 billion won ($73.9 million) on T&C Foundation trustee Kim Hee-young, drawing attention to the actual spending details.

Attorney Lee made the claim to reporters in November 2023, after a pretrial hearing in a damages lawsuit Noh had filed against Kim, saying Chey had spent more than 100 billion won on Kim since 2015.

Chey's side says the 100 billion won figure Lee cited was a simple sum of all outflows from accounts held in Chey's name — including expenses unrelated to Kim, such as a home and artworks registered solely in his name, as well as foundation contributions, emergency relief funds, scholarships and other donations, among them a 13.3 billion won transfer to the T&C Foundation.

"It is a distortion of the facts to claim that contributions and donations made for public-interest purposes were gifts to a specific individual," Chey's side said. According to disclosures made to the court handling the asset-division case, the amount Chey and Kim actually spent together on living expenses was about 2 billion won. Chey's side said both Noh and attorney Lee were aware of those disclosures.

A review of the T&C Foundation's published financial statements Thursday showed that since its establishment in 2018 through 2025, the foundation used about 16.1 billion won — roughly 88 percent — of its approximately 18.3 billion won in donations for public-interest projects, excluding about 1 billion won placed in fixed deposits as endowment assets. Including operating expenses, total expenditures reached approximately 18.8 billion won, meaning the foundation spent more than it received in donations. Kim was confirmed to be working without pay.

Chey's side argues that under Article 48 of the Civil Act and other statutes, foundation contributions cannot legally be converted into or misappropriated as personal assets, and that the ultimate recipients of the funds were not any individual but numerous scholarship recipients and public-interest beneficiaries — making the 100 billion won claim untenable.

"Attorney Lee, as a legal representative in the asset-division lawsuit, was in a position to verify these facts," Chey's side said. "He inflated the figure by more than 50 times the actual amount to influence an ongoing trial and repeatedly appeared on broadcasts to spread false information."

Some legal experts say it would be premature to characterize the spending as a private gift to a specific individual, given that the final destination and beneficiaries of the funds are clearly identifiable. A lawyer specializing in public-interest foundations said that once a contribution or donation is transferred to a foundation, it becomes property that no individual can dispose of at will under the Act on the Establishment and Operation of Public Interest Corporations.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office dropped the defamation case against attorney Lee on Friday, citing insufficient evidence. The charges had been filed on allegations that he spread false information. Chey's side filed an appeal, saying the decision not to prosecute was being misrepresented as a validation of Lee's claims and perpetuating further distortion.