Samsung patriarch's billionaire daughter scores partial victory in divorce suit

By Lim Chang-won Posted : July 20, 2017, 15:26 Updated : July 21, 2017, 08:04

[Aju News DB]


The billionaire daughter of Samsung Group's bedridden patriarch Lee Kun-hee scored a partial victory in her tedious legal battle to end her marital life with her bodyguard-turned husband.

The Seoul family court allowed Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, 46,  to break up a marriage and keep bringing up her son after paying 8.6 billion won (7.65 million US dollars) to her husband, Lim Woo-jae.

The couple married in August 1999 in the male version of "Cinderella", but their fairy-tale romance got into trouble for unknown reasons, triggering plenty of rumors and speculation. Lee Boo-jin launched a divorce suit in late 2014 at a court in the southern city of Suwon. 

Initially, the Suwon court ruled in favor of Lee Boo-jin, but Lim appealed, calling for a new retrial in Seoul where the couple had lived together until they were separated. An appeals court in Suwon nullified the decision and ordered a new trial at a different place.

The family court in Seoul took over the case in November last year. Lim has requested a small amount of alimony and the division of assets worth 1.2 trillion won. He was known to have met his wife while he served as her bodyguard, but he once said in a newspaper interview that he had attempted suicide due to stress and pressure from the tycoon's family.

Lee Boo-jin was listed by US business magazine Forbes as one of the world's 100 most powerful women. Hotel Shilla operates South Korea's second-largest duty-free chain after Lotte.
 
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