China Jails Evergrande Founder for Life, Fines Firm More Than $2bn

A Chinese court has sentenced the founder of collapsed property giant Evergrande, Hui Ka Yan, to life imprisonment for financial crimes linked to the company’s spectacular downfall.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court found Hui guilty of multiple offences, including large-scale financial fraud, embezzlement, bribery and illegal fundraising.

The court also ordered the confiscation of Hui’s personal assets and imposed fines of 8.82 billion yuan, about $1.31 billion, on Evergrande Group and seven billion yuan, about $1.04 billion, on its property subsidiary, Evergrande Real Estate Group.

The combined fines amount to about $2.4 billion.

Hui, who once ranked among Asia’s wealthiest businessmen, built Evergrande into one of China’s largest property developers through aggressive expansion funded largely by debt.

The company defaulted on its overseas debts in 2021 after accumulating liabilities exceeding $300 billion, triggering a prolonged crisis in China’s property sector.

According to the court, Hui and Evergrande manipulated financial information between 2016 and 2021, inflating the company’s assets and concealing liabilities.

Investigators found that Evergrande had overstated revenues by about $80 billion in 2019 and 2020 through financial manipulation, including prematurely recording property sales.

The court also sentenced more than 50 other people connected to the company to prison terms ranging from 22 months to 18 years.

Hui had pleaded guilty to the charges and expressed remorse during proceedings.

Evergrande was ordered into liquidation by a Hong Kong court in January 2024 after failing to reach an agreement with creditors over restructuring its massive debt.

The latest ruling marks a major development in Beijing’s efforts to hold executives accountable for financial misconduct linked to the property crisis, which has continued to weigh on China’s economy.