The spouse of Kwon Hyuk-bin, founder of Smilegate Group and chairman of Hope Studio, reportedly demanded the division of half of the Smilegate Holdings shares in the first divorce trial held on the 19th.
Smilegate Group Chairman Kwon Hyuk-bin (Chairman of the Hope Studio Foundation) [Image source=Yonhap News]
At 5 p.m. that day, the Family Agreement Division 3 of the Seoul Family Court (Chief Judge Won Jeong-sook) held a closed preliminary hearing for the divorce lawsuit filed by Mrs. Lee against Chairman Kwon.
Mrs. Lee filed for divorce against Chairman Kwon in November last year. She claimed a division of property amounting to half of the shares held by Chairman Kwon, stating that she had raised children during their 20 years of marriage and had served as CEO of Smilegate as a co-founder in the early days of the company. The claim was based on the premise that she contributed to the growth and value formation of the company from its inception.
On the other hand, Chairman Kwon reportedly requested the dismissal of the lawsuit.
Considering that the value of Smilegate Holdings shares held by Chairman Kwon is in the 10 trillion won range, the shares demanded by Mrs. Lee are estimated to be worth about 5 trillion won.
According to the 2022 global billionaire rankings announced by the U.S. business magazine Forbes in April last year, Chairman Kwon was ranked as the 5th richest person in South Korea with assets totaling 6.8 billion dollars (9.0474 trillion won).
Chairman Kwon graduated from Sogang University with a degree in Electronic Engineering in 1999 and founded Smilegate in 2002. Smilegate grew based on the success of the game "Crossfire," released in 2006, in the Chinese market.
He has served as CEO and chairman of the holding company Smilegate Holdings, and in 2017, he was appointed chairman of Hope Studio, a public interest foundation. In 2020, he also took on the role of Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) of Smilegate.
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