Once Asia’s Richest Man, Evergrande Founder Hui Ka Yan Sentenced To Life In Prison

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China Evergrande Group who was once Asia’s richest man with a peak net worth of $45.3 billion, was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison on multiple charges including bribery, fraud and falsifying financial information, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The disgraced entrepreneur, who has come to symbolize the boom-and-bust cycle in China’s property sector, was sentenced in a Shenzhen court. The court also imposed an 8.82 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) fine on the formerly Hong Kong-listed developer, and a separate 7 billion yuan fine on its onshore unit. All of Hui’s personal assets will be confiscated, according to Xinhua.

The amount involved in the crimes is “exceptionally large,” and the deeds are “particularly heinous,” Xinhua wrote. It added that Hui and his companies must receive heavy punishments because they have caused staggering economic losses and widespread harm to society.

The fallen property magnate, who had already pleaded guilty in April to charges including bribery and fundraising fraud in a Chinese court, was first taken into custody in late 2023. Once the country’s largest developer by sales, Evergrande touched off a crisis around 2021. At the time, its missed bond payments spooked investors and led to alarms over the financial health of China’s entire real estate sector.

It later emerged that the company had overleveraged itself – not just from financial institutions and international and local bond markets, but also from its own employees — to embark on a debt-fueled expansion that Beijing later cracked down on. A prolonged effort to restructure its over $300 billion in liabilities failed in 2024, when a Hong Kong court ordered the firm to be liquidated because its restructuring proposal was “scant.”

A year later in 2025, Evergrande was delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, following a prolonged trading suspension. Liquidators are still trying to recover assets from the now collapsed property company and Hui’s ex-wife, Ding Yumei, to compensate creditors. Ding now reportedly resides in London.

In the meantime, the Shenzhen court also sentenced 56 other individuals related to the Evergrande case to terms ranging from 22 months to 18 years in prison on charges including fraud and illicitly raising funds from the public. They include Hui’s sons Xu Tenghe and Xu Zhijian, according to Xinhua. The news agency did not provide a breakdown of individual sentences and charges.