Founder of Smilegate appeals divorce ruling

Kwon Hyuk-bin, the founder of video game company Smilegate, has appealed against a court ruling that ordered him to pay his wife 2.55 trillion won ($1.87 billion) in a divorce lawsuit, according to his lawyers Monday.

The appeal came after the Seoul Family Court issued the ruling on Sept. 9, in what could be a record-high property division in the nation's divorce lawsuit.

According to the lawyers, Kwon appealed against the ruling as he seeks to make efforts to restore the marital relationship.

Kwon's wife, identified only by her surname Lee, filed the divorce lawsuit in November 2022.

The court ordered the payout, including a 35 percent stake in Smilegate, to Lee as part of the division of marital assets. The firm is 100 percent owned by Kwon.

However, Kwon's lawyers claimed that Lee had made little contribution in the marital assets.

Born in 1974, Kwon graduated from Sogang University's Department of Electronic Engineering in 1999 and married Lee in 2001. He founded Smilegate the following year. He became the chairman of the Smilegate Hope Studio, a public interest foundation, in 2012 and the chief visionary officer of Smilegate Holdings in 2020.

The couple began living separately in 2020, and Lee filed for divorce two years later, claiming that Kwon had neglected his family responsibilities.

Lee sought half of Kwon's Smilegate shares, claiming she had held a 30 percent stake in the company in its early years.

But Kwon has maintained that he bears no fault for the breakdown of their marriage and does not wish to divorce. He also argued that Lee cannot be considered a co-founder, as she neither invested capital in nor worked for the company.