Evergrande Founder Hui Ka Yan Sentenced To Life In Prison For Massive Fraud In China

Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan has been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court for large-scale financial fraud, marking the dramatic end of the career of one of Asia’s former richest businessmen and a major chapter in China’s property crisis.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, on Thursday after finding him guilty of multiple financial crimes. The court said the 67 year old former chairman had inflated Evergrande’s assets and concealed liabilities, causing enormous financial losses and serious economic and social harm.

The court also ordered the confiscation of all Hui’s personal assets. Evergrande Group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion), while its mainland subsidiary Evergrande Real Estate was fined 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion), taking the combined penalties against the companies to 15.82 billion yuan ($2.35 billion).

Hui pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, misuse of funds, illegal lending, fraudulent issuance of securities and bribery. He expressed remorse during the proceedings.

The verdict follows revelations that Evergrande had manipulated its financial reporting. The company was found to have inflated revenues and assets while hiding liabilities, contributing to the scale of the eventual collapse. Chinese regulators had already fined the company and banned Hui from China's securities market for life over earlier financial misconduct.

Hui founded Evergrande in 1996 and transformed it into a property powerhouse during China's real estate boom. At his peak in 2017, his wealth was estimated at $45.3 billion, making him one of Asia's richest men. By 2023, his fortune had fallen dramatically as Evergrande's crisis deepened.

Evergrande defaulted on much of its more than $300 billion in liabilities in 2021, triggering a prolonged property crisis. A Hong Kong court ordered the company into liquidation in 2024, although the process of recovering assets and repaying creditors remains ongoing.

The case has also ensnared other executives. More than 50 people, including senior Evergrande officials and members of Hui's family, received prison sentences ranging from nearly two years to 18 years in connection with the financial crimes.

Hui's life sentence therefore closes one of China's biggest corporate downfall stories, but Evergrande's debt crisis is far from over, with creditors still facing major challenges in recovering money from the collapsed property empire.