At a partially shuttered Evergrande commercial complex, a worker collects trash even as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange delists the Chinese property developer China Evergrande in Beijing, China, on August 25, 2025. Mahesh Kumar A./AP captured this moment.
Beijing: Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande real estate group, faces a life sentence, with the companies fined $2.3 billion, according to the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday. This ruling is a crucial point in Evergrande’s collapse, amid liabilities exceeding $300 billion, following Chinese authorities’ 2020 crackdown on excessive borrowing in real estate. The crackdown caused a downturn in the property market, affecting the wider economy.
The court found Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, and Evergrande guilty of large-scale financial fraud by inflating assets and concealing liabilities. Hui abused his position for orchestrating fraud and misappropriating assets. Several senior Evergrande executives received prison terms up to 18 years for charges such as illegally taking public deposits and fraud, according to court statements.
Evergrande group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion) while Evergrande Real Estate Group received a 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) fine. These penalties were part of the court’s announced verdict. Hui pleaded guilty in April to charges including illegal absorption of public deposits, fraud, and bribery, following his arrest in China.
China Evergrande, established in 1996, defaulted on its debts in 2021, making it the world’s most indebted real estate developer. Authorities ordered liquidation of its assets. Investigations in Hong Kong and mainland China revealed Evergrande manipulated financial data by preemptively recording revenue from property sales before the completion and delivery to buyers. Officials reported revenue was overstated by approximately $80 billion over 2019 and 2020.