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

Life sentence for Evergrande founder

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China's property giant Evergrande Group, has been sentenced to life in prison by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. The court also ordered the confiscation of all of his personal property and the revocation of his political rights for life. The sentencing, reported by multiple outlets, marks a decisive chapter in the collapse of once China's largest property developer.

The court convicted Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, of engaging in "large-scale financial fraud" to inflate Evergrande's assets and conceal its liabilities. It found that he abused his position to orchestrate fraud and misappropriate company assets, and that he used bribery to gain control of financial institutions, according to court statements cited by several news organizations. The court's ruling stated that between 2016 and 2021, Hui and his businesses "violated national laws by employing methods such as sustained, large-scale financial fraud," as reported by The Guardian. The court added that his actions "severely disrupted the order of the socialist market economy" and "caused exceptionally heavy economic losses."

Hui, 67, pleaded guilty in April to multiple charges, including fraud, bribery, illegally taking public deposits, and embezzlement. He had faced eight charges in total, as noted by ABC Australia and The Hindu.

Fines and other sentences

The court fined Evergrande Group 8.82 billion yuan and its main subsidiary, Evergrande Real Estate Group (also referred to as Hengda Real Estate), 7 billion yuan. The combined fines total 15.82 billion yuan, equivalent to roughly $2.3 billion or $2.35 billion depending on the conversion used, as reported by several sources including BBC, Deutsche Welle, and France 24. The court also ordered the recovery of remaining illegal gains.

Beyond Hui, more than 50 individuals linked to Evergrande received prison sentences on Thursday, ranging from 22 months to 18 years, according to reports from Africa News, The Hindu, and The Guardian. These included Hui's two sons, Xu Tenghe and Xu Zhijian, who were sentenced on charges including fundraising fraud and the illegal use of funds. A total of 56 people were given jail terms, with the shortest being one year and ten months, as reported by France 24, citing Xinhua News Agency. Five other senior executives received prison terms of six to 18 years, according to Deutsche Welle.

The collapse and its aftermath

Evergrande, founded by Hui in 1996, became China's biggest real estate developer, with a stock market valuation that peaked at more than $50 billion, as reported by BBC and France 24. Hui was once estimated to be Asia's richest person, with Forbes naming him China's richest man in 2017 with a net worth of $42.5 billion, according to The Guardian.

The company's fortunes turned in 2020 when Beijing introduced regulations to curb excessive borrowing in the property sector, including the so-called "three red lines" on developer leverage. Evergrande defaulted on its debts in 2021, collapsing under more than $300 billion in liabilities, as reported by multiple sources. The company was ordered to be liquidated by a Hong Kong court in 2024, and its shares were delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August 2025, according to France 24 and BBC.

Investigators in Hong Kong and mainland China found that Evergrande inflated its revenue by roughly $80 billion over 2019 and 2020, including by booking property sales before completion and delivery, as reported by Deutsche Welle and ABC Australia. In April, the court heard that the company had taken millions of dollars in pre-sale funding from buyers that was not used for construction but instead channelled to new developments, leaving hundreds of projects unfinished, according to BBC.

Broader economic impact

The verdict comes as China's property sector continues to struggle. The debt problems of Evergrande and other developers such as Country Garden, Vanke, and Kaisa have had a severe impact on consumer confidence, as reported by France 24. New-home prices in China have been contracting for three years, and official data for July showed retail sales declining year-on-year, with real estate development investment down by nearly one fifth, according to France 24.

In a separate development, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court formally accepted a bankruptcy liquidation petition against Hengda Real Estate, the main onshore unit of Evergrande, on Friday — a day after Hui's sentencing, as reported by the South China Morning Post. The petition was filed by Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank's Huaxia branch, which met the legal criteria under China's Enterprise Bankruptcy Law. The court cited the firm's inability to pay mature debts and insufficient total assets.

The rapid sequence of events underscores Beijing's determination to end the years-long debt crisis surrounding Evergrande, as the South China Morning Post noted. Analysts quoted by France 24, including Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Asia-Pacific chief economist at Natixis, said the crisis had exposed structural weaknesses in the system. The broader property market downturn continues to weigh on China's economy, which is targeting GDP growth of 4.5 to 5.0 percent this year, its lowest official goal in decades.