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A Chinese court has sentenced Hui Ka Yan, former chairman and founder of Evergrande, which is considered a symbol of China's real estate crisis, to life imprisonment.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen in southern Guangdong Province sentenced the former chairman Hui today (the 20th) on charges including illegal public deposit solicitation, fundraising fraud, illegal loans, fraudulent issuance of securities, violation of important information disclosure obligations, illegal capital management, embezzlement, and bribery.
The court also ordered the lifelong deprivation of Hui's political rights, the confiscation of all his property, and the continued recovery of illegal gains with compensation required for any shortfalls.
For Evergrande Group, which was put on trial alongside Hui, a fine of 8.82 billion yuan (approx. 1.8 trillion won) was imposed, while Evergrande Real Estate was fined 7 billion yuan (approx. 1.4 trillion won).
The Chinese court stated that, based on legal regulations, the compensation for losses suffered by investors and others must be enforced prior to fines and confiscations.
The tribunal ruled that Hui practically controlled Evergrande Group and invested in various fields such as real estate and finance. From 2016 to 2021, he engaged in criminal acts such as continuous large-scale financial manipulation, inflating assets, concealing liabilities, illegally soliciting deposits, fraudulently issuing securities, and violating disclosure obligations.
The court emphasized, "The criminal acts of Evergrande Group, Evergrande Real Estate, and Hui Ka Yan severely undermined the order of the socialist market economy, infringed upon public and private property rights, and violated the integrity of state functionaries' official duties," adding, "Because the amount involved is exceptionally large, the circumstances are vicious, and it has caused particularly severe economic losses with serious social harm, they must be severely punished according to the law."
The Chinese court also sentenced 56 other individuals related to Evergrande Group to prison terms ranging from 1 year and 10 months to 18 years on the same day.
This ruling comes approximately three years after former chairman Hui was detained in September 2023.
Hui, who came from a rural background in Henan Province and majored in metallurgical engineering, moved to the southern region in the early 1990s to venture into trading, and founded Evergrande in Guangzhou in 1996.
Riding the wave of China's real estate boom and fueled by large-scale borrowing, pre-sales, and high-turnover models, Evergrande grew rapidly, eventually ranking as China's largest real estate developer by sales in 2017.
However, after Chinese authorities implemented borrowing restriction policies known as the "three red lines" in 2020, its funding sources were cut off, leading to a liquidity crisis and default the following year.
In 2024, it received a liquidation order from a Hong Kong court, and was delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange in August 2025.
Losses incurred by offshore bond investors due to Evergrande's bankruptcy were estimated at 20 billion dollars (approx. 27.9 trillion won).
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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