Hong Kong —
The founder of embattled Chinese property behemoth Evergrande was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, according to state media, the latest chapter of ignominy for a former symbol of the nation’s economic boom.
Once China’s largest real-estate developer, Evergrande Group has been hobbled by debt since 2021, with $300 billion in liabilities. Its crisis – along with those of other property giants – has been at the heart of a wider Chinese real-estate shock, a long-term drag the world’s second-largest economy.
As well as the life sentence, its founder Hui Ka Yan – also known as Xu Jiayin – was ordered to forfeit all his personal assets, Xinhua reported, citing a verdict handed down by a court in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen. The nation’s former richest person was also stripped of all political rights for life.
Evergrande Group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.23 billion), and Evergrande Real Estate was fined 7 billion yuan, it said – some of the biggest corporate criminal fines ever handed down by the Chinese government.
