China sentences Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan to life
A Shenzhen court ordered Hui’s personal property confiscated and fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan after he admitted eight charges.
A Chinese court sentenced China Evergrande Group founder Hui Ka Yan to life imprisonment on Thursday (August 20, 2026), ordered the confiscation of all his personal property and imposed multibillion-yuan fines on the heavily indebted property developer and its main subsidiary.
Hui pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud and illegally taking public deposits.
The court in the southern city of Shenzhen fined Evergrande 8.82 billion yuan, or about US$1.31 billion, and imposed a separate 7 billion yuan fine on Hengda Real Estate.
Other executives receive prison terms
Five other senior executives were given prison sentences ranging from six to 18 years. The court also imposed fines on them, although the Reuters report did not specify the individual penalties or identify the executives.
The ruling represents the most severe legal consequence yet reported for Hui, who built Evergrande into one of China’s most prominent property developers before the group’s debt crisis intensified.
Verdict follows Evergrande’s US$300 billion default
Evergrande has been in default since 2021 on most of its approximately US$300 billion in liabilities, making it the world’s most indebted property developer.
The company’s financial difficulties became one of the defining cases in China’s prolonged property-sector crisis, which has weighed on the world’s second-largest economy and left domestic and overseas creditors facing substantial unpaid claims.
