Chey Tae-won, left, chairman of SK Group, and his former wife Roh Soh-yeong attend a legal proceeding for their divorce trial at Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul on June 15.YONHAP
Prosecutors launched a series of raids on Friday as part of an investigation into allegations that the family of former President Roh Tae-woo concealed a massive slush fund.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office raided the former president’s residence in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun District, western Seoul, where his widow Kim Ok-suk lives.
The investigators also raided the East Asia Culture Center, where the former president’s son Ro Jae-hun is chairman, and the Roh Tae-Woo Foundation.
Roh Tae-woo served as the president from 1988 to 1993 and died in 2021.
The allegations first surfaced during divorce proceedings between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and his ex-wife Roh Soh-yeong, the director of Art Center Nabi and daughter of the former president.
During an appellate trial in May 2024, Roh Soh-yeong’s side argued that her family had played a role in SK Group’s growth. As evidence, her lawyers submitted photographs showing parts of six promissory notes worth 5 billion won ($3.62 million) each, along with notes believed to have been written by Kim.
The documents, which became known as the Kim Ok-suk memos, reportedly included specific amounts alongside phrases such as “30 billion won to Sunkyoung,” the former name of the SK Group, and “Entrusted money: 66.7 billion won plus 9 billion won.”
The memos were followed by a criminal complaint in October 2024 that called for an investigation into allegations that the former president’s family had stashed slush funds away and evaded taxes.
Now-SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, second from left, and then-wife Roh Soh-yeong, second right, pose at their wedding in 1988. The late President Roh Tae-woo, far right, stands next to his daughter.JOONGANG ILBO
The May 18 Foundation civic group alleged in a complaint filed with prosecutors that Kim’s donations to organizations connected to her son were part of a flow of funds intended to conceal the slush money.
Kim donated a total of 14.7 billion won to the East Asia Culture Center between 2016 and 2021 and another 500 million won to the Roh Tae-Woo Foundation in 2022.
The civic group estimated that the Roh family had concealed some 126.6 billion won in slush funds.
“If the flow of the money is traced backward, it will be possible to uncover the full extent of the criminal activity,” the foundation said.
A civic group dedicated to recovering criminal proceeds from military regimes later filed a similar complaint with prosecutors against the Roh family. Lee Hee-kyu, a former lawmaker and current chair of the future strategy special committee of the Parliamentarian’s Society of the Republic of Korea, also lodged a complaint.
Prosecutors questioned the complainants after receiving the complaints, but tracing the flow of the funds proved a lengthy process.
Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong heads into the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on June 15.JOINT PRESS CORPS
More than three decades had already passed since the alleged transactions, and investigators had an extensive volume of records to analyze.
Another major obstacle was that transactions made before Korea introduced its real-name financial transaction system in 1993 made it extremely difficult to determine who actually held the funds.
After spending roughly a year tracing the flow of the money, prosecutors moved to conduct the raids on Friday.
The investigators will now review the materials seized during the searches. Once that process is complete, prosecutors plan to summon those involved, including members of the former president’s family, for questioning.
Chey publicly announced his intention to divorce the former president's daughter in 2015 while revealing that he had a child outside the marriage. The legal battle began in July 2017 when he filed for divorce mediation, and is still ongoing.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
