Key facts
- China Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Hui Ka Yan's personal property has been ordered confiscated.
- He faced charges including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, and illegal absorption of public deposits.
- Evergrande inflated revenues by 564 billion yuan for 2019 and 2020.
- Hui Ka Yan was detained in September 2023 and pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges.
Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China Evergrande Group, has been sentenced to life imprisonment and had all his personal property confiscated by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court. Hui pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including embezzlement of assets, corporate bribery, fundraising fraud, and illegal absorption of public deposits. The court also fined Evergrande Group 8.82 billion yuan and its real estate unit 7 billion yuan. Hui, 67, was detained in September 2023. Regulatory findings showed Evergrande inflated its 2019 and 2020 revenues by a combined 564 billion yuan, enabling fraudulent bond issuance. China's securities regulator had previously fined Hui 47 million yuan and banned him from the securities market for life. Evergrande, once the world's most indebted property developer with over $300 billion in liabilities, faced a liquidation order in 2024. The company's collapse has contributed to a wider real estate crisis in China.