Evergrande Founder Hui Ka Yan Sentenced to Life in Prison

By Blessing Nweke

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China Evergrande Group, has been sentenced to life in prison after a Chinese court convicted him of multiple financial crimes, marking a dramatic fall for one of the country’s most prominent property tycoons.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court handed down the sentence Thursday and ordered the confiscation of all of Hui’s personal property. The 67-year-old businessman, also known as Xu Jiayin, had pleaded guilty in April to charges including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud and illegally taking public deposits.

The court also imposed major financial penalties on Evergrande. The company was fined 8.82 billion yuan, about $1.31 billion, while its main property subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate, was fined 7 billion yuan. Five other senior executives received prison sentences ranging from six to 18 years.

Hui once symbolized China’s extraordinary property boom and was considered the country’s richest person in 2017. Evergrande expanded rapidly through heavy borrowing and became one of the world’s largest developers.

However, the company defaulted on its debts in 2021 after accumulating more than $300 billion in liabilities. Its collapse became a major symbol of China’s prolonged property-sector crisis and contributed to concerns about unfinished homes, creditor losses and weakening economic confidence.

The latest ruling underscores Beijing’s tougher approach toward financial misconduct while bringing a striking end to Hui’s rise from businessman to billionaire property magnate. Evergrande itself was ordered into liquidation in Hong Kong in 2024 after failing to produce a viable restructuring plan.