Samsung heiress ordered to pay $7.6 mln in divorce ruling

Hotel Shilla

20/07/2017 08:38

By Joyce Lee 
    SEOUL, July 20 (Reuters) - A Seoul court on Thursday ordered 
Samsung Group heiress Lee Boo-jin to provide assets of 8.6 
billion won ($7.64 million) to her estranged husband in a 
divorce from the ex-employee of a Samsung affiliate.  
    Lee, the 46-year-old chief executive of Hotel Shilla 
 008770.KS  and daughter of ailing Samsung Group patriarch Lee 
Kun-hee, received sole custody of their son in the ruling, a 
spokeswoman for the Seoul family court told Reuters.  
    If appealed within two weeks, however, the ruling is not 
final, the spokeswoman added.  
    Im Woo-jae, 48, was dubbed "Mr. Cinderella" by media for his 
humble background before marrying Lee in 1999. But in late 2014, 
she filed for divorce and custody of their child. 
    Im, who filed his own suit seeking 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 
billion) from Lee through a division of assets, plans to appeal 
against Thursday's ruling, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency 
said, citing one of his lawyers. 
    Reuters could not immediately reach Im's lawyers, or a 
representative of Lee, to seek comment.  
    An employee of a security service affiliate of Samsung Group 
who did not belong to the political or business elite, Im was 
seen as an unusual match for a member of a family controlling 
South Korea's most powerful business conglomerate.   
    South Korean media have said the couple, who met at a 
volunteering event, had to overcome opposition from both 
families in order to marry. 
    Im took an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology after marrying Lee and rose quickly through the ranks 
at Samsung, becoming an executive vice president at Samsung 
Electro-Mechanics  009150.KS .  
    Forbes estimates Lee's net worth at $2 billion, chiefly from 
 the market value of her stake of 5.5 percent in Samsung's 
de-facto holding company, Samsung C&T Corp  028260.KS . 
    Samsung Electronics  005930.KS  vice chairman Jay Y. Lee has 
been effectively running the conglomerate after the elder Lee 
was incapacitated in a 2014 heart attack. Jay Y. Lee is now in 
jail during a trial on bribery charges he has 
denied. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1GJ214 
($1=1,125.6900 won) 
 
 (Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Writing by Se Young 
Lee; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Clarence Fernandez) 
 ((jungyoon.lee@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5609; Reuters 
Messaging: jungyoon.lee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SAMSUNG HEIRESS/DIVORCE