China’s Evergrande founder sentenced to life over financial crimes

The billionaire founder of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, August 20, by a Chinese court, which also ordered the confiscation of all his personal property.

Hui Ka Yan pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud and illegally taking public deposits.

Evergrande, once one of China’s leading property developers, has been in default since 2021 on most of its roughly $300 billion in liabilities. The company’s collapse has become emblematic of a prolonged crisis in China’s property sector, which has weighed on the world’s second-largest economy for years.

Hui’s life sentence brings an end to his rags-to-riches story, but is unlikely to provide significant relief to Evergrande’s domestic and foreign creditors.

In addition to sentencing Hui, the court in the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement that it had fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) and its main subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate, 7 billion yuan.

The court also sentenced five other senior executives to fines and prison terms ranging from six to 18 years.

By Tamilla Hasanova