Property developer China Evergrande's founder, 67, gets life sentence
All his personal property has also been confiscated.
On August 20, 2026, a Chinese court handed a life sentence to the 67-year-old founder of property giant China Evergrande Group, Hui Ka Yan, also known as Xu Jiayin. The court convicted him of multiple crimes, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, illegally extending loans, fraudulent issuance of securities, and bribery.
Hui had pleaded guilty in April 2026 to eight charges related to these offenses. In addition to the life sentence, all of Hui's personal property was confiscated and he was stripped of his political rights for life. His former companies were fined a combined total of 15.82 billion yuan (approximately S$2.98 billion) for their involvement in various illegal activities.
The court also sentenced 56 other Evergrande personnel, including Hui's two sons, to varying terms of imprisonment and fines for their roles in fraudulent activities, such as illegal deposit absorption, fundraising fraud, and illegal use of funds. The court ruled that Evergrande, along with two other real estate companies, had severely disrupted the Chinese property market between 2016 and 2021 through large-scale financial fraud.
This included inflating assets, concealing liabilities, committing crimes, and illegally disclosing key information. Hui's downfall began with his rise from humble beginnings to establish Evergrande in 1996, which quickly became China's largest real estate developer with a stock market valuation exceeding US$50 billion. However, by June 2023, Evergrande had become the world's most indebted real estate developer, with total liabilities reaching US$332 billion.
Written by urgent.news from Mothership's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
