A worker collects trash in a partially shuttered Evergrande commercial complex, on the day Hong Kong Stock Exchange delisted the Chinese property developer China Evergrande, in Beijing, China, Aug. 25, 2025.
Mahesh Kumar A./AP
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Mahesh Kumar A./AP
BEIJING — Hui Ka Yan, the founder of the Evergrande real estate group, has been handed a life sentence and the companies fined $2.3 billion, according to a court in Shenzhen.
This judgment is a significant point in Evergrande’s ongoing troubles, which began with its collapse under over $300 billion in liabilities after Chinese regulators curtailed excessive borrowing in the real estate sector in 2020. This led to a crisis for many developers and has since impacted the broader economy.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court found Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, and Evergrande guilty of large-scale financial fraud involving the inflation of the group’s assets and concealing its debts.
The court declared that Hui abused his position to orchestrate financial fraud and misappropriate company assets. Several senior Evergrande executives received prison sentences of up to 18 years for charges such as illegally taking public deposits and fraud.
The Evergrande group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion), and the Evergrande Real Estate Group faced a 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) penalty, as stated by the court.
Hui admitted guilt in April to charges including illegal public deposit absorption, fraud, and bribery following his arrest in China.
China Evergrande, established in 1996, defaulted on its debts in 2021. It was the most heavily indebted real estate developer globally before being ordered to liquidate its assets.
Authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China revealed that Evergrande manipulated its financial data by booking revenue from property sales prematurely before the apartments were completed and delivered to buyers. Revenues were overstated by about $80 billion in 2019 and 2020, they reported.
