The founder of China Evergrande Group, once the world’s most indebted property developer, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chinese court, five years after the company’s collapse sent shockwaves through the country’s economy and financial markets.
Hui Ka Yan, 67, who was once Asia’s richest man, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, illegally extending loans, fraudulent issuance of securities and bribery.
Evergrande, once one of China’s leading property developers, has defaulted on most of its estimated $300bn in liabilities. The company’s collapse became a symbol of the prolonged crisis in China’s property sector, which has weighed heavily on the world’s second-largest economy.
A court in the southern city of Shenzhen sentenced Hui to life in prison and ordered the confiscation of all his personal property. The ruling brings a dramatic end to his rise from humble beginnings to one of Asia’s wealthiest businessmen, but is unlikely to provide significant relief to Evergrande’s domestic and international creditors.
Evergrande’s liquidators declined to comment on the sentence, while Reuters was unable to reach Hui’s legal representatives. Hui had not been seen publicly since Chinese authorities detained him in 2023 following the developer’s default.
Images released by the court showed a grey-haired Hui standing between two officers as the sentence was read out. He was dressed in a long-sleeved navy blue collared shirt.
“The criminal acts of Evergrande Group, Hengda Real Estate, and Hui Ka Yan … involved particularly huge amounts and egregious circumstances, caused particularly significant economic losses and caused particularly serious social harm, and should be severely punished according to law,” the court said in a statement.
Comments by Evergrande homeowners in a social media group included, “All ordinary citizens have paid the cost,” “Imprisonment is meant to protect him. If he comes out, his life is in jeopardy” and “What about our money?”
In addition to Hui’s life sentence, the court fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31bn) and its main subsidiary, Hengda, 7 billion yuan. Five other senior executives were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years and ordered to pay fines.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that a total of 56 people linked to Evergrande, excluding Hui, were sentenced by the court on Thursday.
Evergrande’s failure to repay billions of dollars tied to wealth-management products also sparked protests and raised concerns over social stability.
Many ordinary investors, including lower-income households, lost their investments after the company’s financial collapse.
