Supreme Court Public Officials' Asset Disclosure... Chief Judge Lim Hae-ji Ranks 1st with 38.8 Billion Won

The Supreme Court Public Officials Ethics Committee disclosed the periodic changes in assets for 136 public officials belonging to the judiciary, including senior judges at or above the level of high court presiding judge, on the 26th.

Chief Judge Lim Hae-ji Ranks 1st in Assets with 38.8 Billion Won

According to the disclosed data, the public official who reported the most assets within the judiciary was Lim Hae-ji, Chief Judge of the Daegu Family Court, who reported a total of 38.81 billion won. Chief Judge Lim's assets consisted largely of real estate, including apartments under her and her family's names, as well as deposits and significant securities assets such as large-scale listed stocks.

Following her, Judge Lee Hyeong-geun of the Seoul High Court ranked second with 36.51 billion won, and Supreme Court Justice Lee Sook-yeon placed third with 24.31 billion won. They were followed by Lee Seung-ryeon, President of the Judicial Policy Research Institute (20.2 billion won), and Yoon Seung-eun, Presiding Judge of the Seoul High Court (18.61 billion won). The assets of all the senior judges named in the top 10 were tallied to exceed 9 billion won.

Diversification of Investments from Real Estate to Overseas Stocks and Virtual Assets

Looking at the details of this asset disclosure, the major assets of the public officials were still concentrated in stable assets such as deposits and apartments in the Seoul metropolitan area, including the three Gangnam districts (Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa). In the case of Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, he reported a total of 1.82 billion won in assets, including 1.69 billion won in buildings and 1.08 billion won in deposits.

At the same time, a clear trend of diversifying investment portfolios was evident. There were many cases of investments in the stock market under the names of the public officials themselves or their families, and in particular, many were confirmed to hold overseas stocks of major US big tech companies such as Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and Microsoft.

• Maintaining a stable proportion of real estate and deposit assets

• Increasing investment in US blue-chip tech stocks such as Nvidia and Tesla

• Multiple confirmed cases of holding virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple

Additionally, a significant number of public officials reported holding virtual assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple under the names of their families, including children, reflecting the changing investment trends.