[Chatting] Divorce of a famous YouTuber couple..."Is there a way to catch my husband's trick who hid his fortune?"

□ Broadcast date and time: December 17, 2024 (Tue)
□ Host: Attorney Cho In-seop
□ Starter: Attorney Son Eun-chae

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Lawyer Cho In-seop (hereinafter referred to as Cho In-seop): Lawhouse for you, Son Eun-chae is with you. Hello.

◇ Lawyer Son Eun-chae (hereinafter referred to as Son Eun-chae): Hello, I'm lawyer Son Eun-chae from Shinsegae Law Firm.

◆ Jo In-seop: Let's first talk about what kind of concerns you have if you come to the counseling center today.

■ Reporter: My husband and I are YouTubers. I did an eating show, and my husband did an outdoor broadcast. We joined together to attract more viewers. The results were good. All the viewers wanted us to broadcast together, and for that reason, there were many unscheduled broadcasts. As we met often, we felt favored with each other, so we even got married. Until the third year of marriage, we ran our own channels and supported each other and got along well. Whenever we needed it, we did a joint broadcast, and thanks to that, our channel grew little by little. Then, my husband conducted overseas travel contents and the channel grew rapidly. My husband used his momentum to hire several employees and set up a stock company. At first, I only congratulated my husband when he said he was doing well. However, my husband is often abroad, and I couldn't complain to him because I moved to a company. As a result, there are cases where we end the day without contacting each other. There was even a case of watching a YouTube video to find out what my husband was up to. Eventually, we became estranged from each other and after five years of marriage, we are now preparing for a negotiated divorce. I was surprised by my husband's balance of deposits, which was less than I expected, while I was filling out the negotiated divorce report smoothly because I had no children. I began to doubt that my husband wasn't forthright about his property, and that's when the dispute arose over the division of the property. What should I do?

◆ Jo In-seop: This was the story of a YouTuber couple who are in the process of divorcing lawyer Jo In-seop's counseling center. I think you think your husband is playing tricks on you so you won't split your fortune.

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, that's inevitable because you're a YouTuber, so you can roughly guess your husband's income, but if famous YouTubers don't have as much wealth as you think, I can think that way.

◆ [Jo In-seop] Yes, that's right. Then, I think the two of you are now thinking about a negotiated divorce process, is there a way to inquire about your property while proceeding with the negotiated divorce?

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, there is a way to check it together. In fact, many people come to trial without consultation divorce because they cannot know each other's property transparently. In the case of a trial divorce through the court, the property is disclosed to each other through a system called property specification order, and the property can be checked on the authorized site as of the inquiry date. I brought these sites because I thought it would be useful to use them in consultation divorce. First, it is the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute's account information integrated management service site. You can check deposits or securities company balances through the My Account menu at the top, and you can also check loan information in the Financial Information Inquiry menu. The balance of the securities company can be found not only in deposits but also in the total balance of the valuation of the shares held. The balance as of the inquiry date is marked and the transaction details before that are not detailed. The second is a real estate inquiry site provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and if you search VWorld on the portal, it comes up. If you click Find My Land in the top service menu, it will lead you to a screen where you can view the properties you have.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, so during the negotiated divorce, we inquired about our property ourselves and presented it to the other party. So, you're saying, "Let's discuss it in this situation, we can use it like this, right?"

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, that's right.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, then your husband has now established a corporation. Is it possible to inquire about this company?

◇ Son Eun-chae: I can't find out exactly from the site I just mentioned. Now it's a question of whether stocks can be searched, but since it's an unlisted stock on the site earlier, the valuation doesn't come out, but you can check the history of unlisted stock holdings on HomeTex instead.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, then it's going to be a problem for a corporation, what should we do with the property division?Please let me know if it is possible to split the stock company.

◇ Son Eun-chae: In the case of divorce, the subject of division is basically the property that the couple achieved through joint cooperation during the marriage. Even if it is not necessarily in the name of one of the couples, it could be subject to a split if either of them actually controls the property. However, it is common to calculate the value or take into account the contribution because the property itself cannot be ordered to be divided unless the ownership name is returned to the couple. In the case of corporate property, it is a question of whether it belongs to this division before the division method.

◆ Cho In-seop: To put it simply, now that divorce is done by a couple, and a corporation is now recognized as a person in the law, so you may wonder if the property under the name of the corporation is subject to division because it is actually a third party in the division of property between couples.

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, that's right. Let's call it a one-man company that is actually controlled by one couple. Even in this case, since you are a completely different person, you cannot evaluate the company's property as the very personal property and include it in the property division. The precedent is that the company's property should be comprehensively evaluated and the property value attributable to the shareholders should be calculated. In other words, you can't split your husband's corporation right away, but you need to evaluate the price of your husband's company stock and put that value into the property division.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, then we have to evaluate the value now, but the stock that my husband owns is now a company that is not listed. How should I value it?

◇ Son Eun-chae: Listed stocks can be based on the exchange price, but unlisted stocks have no exchange price. If an unlisted stock subject to division has actually been traded, it can be recognized that the transaction amount properly reflects the objective exchange value of the stock. In that case, you can set the transaction price at the market price. However, if there is no such transaction case, the court's position is that it should use various methods, such as the commonly recognized market value method and net asset value method, and calculate a fair value by comprehensively considering the company's situation and characteristics of the industry. Specifically, according to the current law, the stock price is calculated by weighted average of net income value and net asset value. In the past, the Supreme Court's ruling calculated the net asset value per share based on the total amount divided by the total number of issued stocks, which was before the symbolic tax law and the enforcement ordinance of the law, so in principle, the aforementioned weighted average method is used in accordance with the current law. If the dispute between the two sides is severe, a separate market price appraisal process will have to go through.

◆ [Jo In-seop] Yes, I see. Then, in the case of listed stocks, at what point will the price be set?

◇ Sohn Eun-chae: Listed stocks are calculated based on the closing price of the exchange at the end of the factual hearing.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, so at the end of the factual hearing, you're talking about the market price at the end of the trial, right?

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, that's right. But the stock price changes every day. So during this trial, if there is a mutual statement at a certain price, that is, a bilateral agreement to make it at this price, it will be calculated at that price.

◆ Cho In-seop: Yes, and now a lot of people are curious about what happens if my husband sells stocks after filing for divorce.

◇ Son Eun-chae: Yes, the date of marriage breakdown is usually considered as the time of filing a lawsuit, but the stock holdings and quantity are determined based on the date of marriage breakdown, that is, the date of whereabouts. And it is assumed that this will be retained until the end of the trial, so it means that even if you sell it during the trial after filing a lawsuit, it will not disappear from the subject of division.

◆ [Jo In-seop] Yes, I see. To summarize what we have discussed so far, we have advised that there may be ways to present their assets to the other party using VWorld on the Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute's integrated account information management service and real estate inquiry site for transparency of assets in the event of a negotiated divorce. In the case of unlisted stocks, I said that it is difficult to inquire about the unlisted stocks that each person has and present them to the other party, but the valuation is difficult to inquire. If a corporation is subject to property division, it cannot be directly divided. We need to evaluate the value of the company's stock and include it as a target for property division. However, in the case of unlisted stocks, I told you that if there is no trading case, it should be calculated using a market value method or a net asset value method. And the value of the stock itself will be based on the end of the trial at the end of the pleading, and even if the stock is sold after filing a divorce lawsuit, the stock is now considered to be held and subject to division. So far, Sohn Eun-chae of Shinsegae Law Firm has been with lawyer.

◇ Son Eun-chae: Thank you.

◆ Cho In-seop: You can listen to Cho In-seop's counseling center again on YouTube and on the website. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a message on the consultation board on the website. You can contact Shinsegae-ro, a law firm, separately.