Hui Ka Yan, founder of troubled property developer Evergrande, sentenced to life in prison
Chinese property developer Hui Ka Yan, founder of the Evergrande real estate group, has been sentenced to life in prison and the companies fined a total of US$2.3 billion, a court in the southern city of Shenzhen said Thursday.
Hui Ka Yan, the founder of the troubled property developer Evergrande, has been sentenced to life in prison, according to Chinese prosecutors. This marks a significant turning point in Evergrande's downfall, which began in 2020 when authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing in the real estate sector. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court convicted Hui and Evergrande of large-scale financial fraud, including inflating assets and concealing liabilities.
In addition to this, Hui was found guilty of abusing his position to orchestrate the fraud and misappropriate company assets. Other senior Evergrande executives received prison terms ranging from up to 6 to 18 years for charges such as illegally taking public deposits and fraud. The court also imposed fines of 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) on the Evergrande group and 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) on Evergrande Real Estate Group.
Hui had already pleaded guilty to illegal absorption of public deposits, fraud, and bribery in April following his arrest in China. Prior to this, Evergrande had defaulted on its debts in 2021, making it the world's most heavily indebted real estate developer at that time. Investigations in Hong Kong and mainland China revealed that Evergrande had manipulated its financial data by prematurely booking revenue before property sales were completed and delivered to buyers, overstating revenues by roughly $80 billion from 2019 to 2020.
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