China Evergrande founder gets life in prison

China Evergrande Group's founder, Hui Ka Yan, received a life prison sentence on Thursday, following his guilty plea in April to various charges including misuse of funds and bribery. Once Asia's wealthiest man, Hui's downfall marked the collapse of China's premier property developer, whose liabilities exceeded $300 billion and highlighted a crisis in the nation's property sector.

The court in Shenzhen sentenced Hui to confiscate all his personal property, as part of his punishment, though it is doubtful this will appease Evergrande's creditors. The criminal acts caused significant economic losses and social harm, and the court emphasized severe punishment was warranted. Beyond Hui's sentence, the court also fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) and its subsidiary Hengda 7 billion yuan, sentencing five other executives to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years.

Hui, a former steel technician, founded Evergrande in 1996 and grew it to become the largest property developer in China, amassing a net worth of $45.3 billion in 2017, according to Forbes. Despite the sentence, the liquidation of Evergrande has been slow, with only around $255 million in assets sold thus far compared to creditors' claims totaling $45 billion.