노태우 비자금 300억 수사, 최태원-노소영 재산분할엔 영향 없을 듯

On the 21st, prosecutors raided the home of President Kim Ok-suk's spouse, Lee Myung-bak, to investigate the alleged "300 billion won" of "Noh Taewoo bribery funds." This marks the first time such a full-scale search has been conducted on the president's residence. However, legal experts believe that the outcome of this investigation will have little impact on the divorce case between Lee Myung-bak and Lee So-young, as well as the ongoing trial of Lee So-young's divorce petition.

The current judicial review is in progress, and the Supreme Court has already excluded "the 300 billion won of Noh Taewoo bribery funds" from the assets to be divided. This makes it difficult for the court to consider this as a key point in the dispute. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office (led by Director So-geun-jeong) conducted the search on the grounds of identifying the "904 billion won" mentioned in the so-called "Kim Ok-suk memo" to clarify the source and amount of the funds.

Lee So-young's side submitted this memo as evidence in the district court hearing in 2024, claiming that it detailed a total of 904 billion won in funds. The claim was that Noh Taewoo had transferred 300 billion won to the late President's father, former Seoul Group chairman Cheong Hyun, while Lee Myung-bak provided six letters of promise worth 50 billion won each. The purpose behind this was to acknowledge Lee Myung-bak's contribution to the growth of the ESC Group.

However, the appellate court did not agree with Lee So-young's stance on this matter. The court ruled that the 300 billion won should not be considered as a part of Lee Myung-bak's assets to be divided. The court argued that the 300 billion won was likely a bribe received by Noh Taewoo, which falls outside the realm of legal protection under the law. Consequently, this amount cannot be included in the assets to be divided among the two parties.