Former China Richest Man Hui Ka Yan Sentenced to Life in Prison Over Evergrande Collapse

The spectacular rise and fall of Chinese property tycoon Hui Ka Yan, founder of China Evergrande Group, has reached a dramatic conclusion after a Shenzhen court sentenced him to life imprisonment and ordered the confiscation of his personal assets.

Hui, once one of Asia’s wealthiest businessmen, was convicted of multiple financial crimes linked to the collapse of Evergrande, the heavily indebted property developer whose downfall became a defining moment in China’s real estate crisis.

The 67-year-old businessman pleaded guilty to eight charges, including fundraising fraud, misuse of funds, illegal lending, securities fraud and bribery. The court also stripped him of his personal property as part of the sentence.

Hui founded Evergrande in 1996 and transformed it into one of China’s largest property developers. At the height of his fortune in 2017, his wealth was estimated at about $45.3 billion, making him one of the richest people in China.

But Evergrande’s aggressive expansion was heavily dependent on borrowing, and the company eventually accumulated liabilities exceeding $300 billion. After defaulting on its debt in 2021, the company became the most prominent symbol of China’s property-sector crisis and was eventually ordered into liquidation in 2024.

The court found that Hui and others had manipulated financial information and concealed liabilities during the years leading up to Evergrande’s collapse. The company itself was fined 8.82 billion yuan (about $1.31 billion), while its main onshore property subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate, received a separate 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) fine.

Hui was not the only person sentenced. Dozens of other people connected to Evergrande were also handed prison terms, with some senior executives receiving sentences ranging from six to 18 years. His sons were among those sentenced for their roles in the wider case.

The verdict marks one of the most dramatic endings to a corporate empire in modern China. Evergrande’s collapse left hundreds of billions of dollars in liabilities and contributed to a prolonged downturn in the country’s property market, affecting homeowners, creditors, investors and construction projects across China.

For Hui, the sentence represents the final chapter of a remarkable transformation—from a businessman who built a property empire worth tens of billions of dollars to a convicted executive facing life behind bars.

The case also sends a powerful message to China’s corporate sector as authorities continue efforts to address financial misconduct and the excesses that contributed to the country’s property crisis.