Founder of collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande sentenced to life in prison

What the report says

Hui Ka Yan, founder of China’s collapsed property giant Evergrande, has been sentenced to life in prison, according to the report cited by Nile Post. A court in Shenzhen also ordered the confiscation of his personal property. Hui had pleaded guilty in April to charges including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery.

The same court fined Hui’s former companies a combined 15.82 billion yuan for offenses including falsifying records and concealing debt. State media also reported prison terms for other Evergrande executives, including Hui’s two sons, Xu Zhijian and Xu Tenghe, who received sentences ranging from 22 months to 18 years. The court said Hui and his businesses had seriously disrupted China’s property market and caused major economic losses.

Evergrande’s downfall has been one of the most damaging episodes in China’s property crisis. The company rose rapidly after being founded in 1996 and became the country’s biggest real estate developer, at one point with a market value above $50 billion. As Beijing tightened rules on debt in 2020, the company struggled, and its collapse in 2021 fed wider instability across the sector.

Background reported by the publisher and BBC coverage says the fallout from Evergrande has continued to affect investors, banks and the broader Chinese economy, where property remained an important growth engine and source of local government revenue.