Immobilienkrise in China: Lebenslange Haft für Evergrande-Gründer

The founder of the collapsed Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande has been sentenced to life in prison. The Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen city found Xu Jiayin, known internationally as Hui Ka Yan, guilty of eight economic crimes, including fraud in capital acquisition, issuing fraudulent securities, misappropriation, and bribery.

The court stripped Xu of his political rights and ordered the confiscation of his entire personal wealth. During his April trial, Xu admitted guilt and expressed remorse. The court also imposed separate fines on two of the group's companies. Evergrande Group must pay 8.82 billion Yuan, equivalent to about 1.1 billion Euros. The real estate company Evergrande Real Estate received an additional fine of 7 billion Yuan, equivalent to around 900 million Euros.

Court findings revealed that Xu and the companies continued to falsify financial data from 2016 to 2021, inflating assets and concealing liabilities. Consequently, Evergrande and Xu obtained control over financial institutions through bribery and acquired the company's unlawful credit and insurance funds. On the same day, courts in Shenzhen convicted 56 individuals from the company's surroundings to prison terms ranging from one year and ten months to 18 years.

Evergrande, the real estate giant, had rapidly grown to become one of the country's largest real estate developers during the Chinese real estate boom, financed by borrowed money. When Beijing limited borrowing for financially indebted developers in 2020, the company's financial problems worsened. At the end of 2021, Evergrande defaulted on international bonds.

In its most recent half-year report as of June 30, 2023, the company had liabilities amounting to 2.39 trillion Yuan, equivalent to about 305 billion Euros. Its collapse symbolized the ongoing real estate crisis in China. A court in Hong Kong ordered the winding-up of the company's listed holding in January 2024 after no feasible refinancing was achieved. In August 2025, Evergrande's stock was removed from the Hong Kong stock exchange.