HELD ACCOUNTABLE:
A total of 56 people were handed prison sentences, with terms for senior executives ranging from six to 18 years in jail, Xinhua reported
China yesterday sentenced the founder of embattled property giant Evergrande to life in prison and fined the group more than US$2 billion for offenses including fraud, five years after a high-profile default.Evergrande Group was once the face of Chinese real estate, surfing a decades-long property boom as it peddled home-ownership dreams. However, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation.The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors.
Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin, center, is pictured during trial in Shenzhen, China, yesterday.
A court in southern China fined the firm and its real-estate arm a total of 15.82 billion yuan (US$2.35 billion).It issued a life sentence against founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), also known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, for crimes including “large-scale financial fraud,” the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong Province said in a post on its WeChat account.
