EVERGRANDE FOUNDER HUI KA YAN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

Hui Ka Yan, founder of Evergrande, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all personal property confiscated, according to Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court. Hui pleaded guilty in April to charges including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery. The court also fined his former companies a total of 15.82bn yuan (£1.73bn; $2.35bn) over multiple crimes, including falsifying records and concealing debt. Other Evergrande executives, including Hui's two sons Xu Zhijian and Xu Tenghe, received jail sentences ranging from 22 months to 18 years.

State-controlled Xinhua News Agency reported that the court heard Hui and his businesses "seriously disrupted" the Chinese property market, resulting in significant economic losses. Hui founded Evergrande in 1996 and oversaw aggressive expansion funded with borrowed money, building it into China's largest real estate developer with a stock market valuation exceeding $50bn (£36.7bn). He was once estimated to be Asia's richest person. The company faced a severe blow when Beijing introduced debt-control measures in 2020 targeting the property sector, after which Evergrande sold properties at heavy discounts to meet interest payments before ultimately collapsing in 2021.

The sentencing marks a pivotal moment in the fallout from Evergrande's collapse, which shook China's property sector and affected investors and domestic banks. The court heard that the company had taken millions of dollars in pre-sale funding from prospective house buyers that were not used for construction, instead being channelled to new developments and resulting in hundreds of unfinished projects. China's property market has experienced a prolonged downward spiral over five years, with real estate values declining and developers facing mounting debt.