Founder of collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande sentenced to life in prisonHui's sentencing marks a key moment in the fallout from Evergrande's collapse, which shook China's property sector.7 mins agoBusiness

Founder of collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande sentenced to life in prison.

Key points

• Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court additionally fined his former businesses a total of 15.82 yuan (£1.73bn; $2.35bn) over multiple crimes, including falsifying records and concealing debt, according to state media.
• In March 2024, Hui was fined $6.5m and banned from China's capital market for life for his firm overstating its revenue by $78bn.
• Other Evergrande executives, including Hui's two sons Xu Zhijian and Xu Tenghe, were additionally sentenced to jail terms ranging from 22 months to 18 years, Xinhua stated.
• Evergrande's stock market valuation shrank by 99% before its shares were removed from the Hong Kong exchange in August 2025 after more than a decade and a half of trading.
• Evergrande became China's biggest real estate developer, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£36.7bn).

Meanwhile, the founder of Evergrande, the property giant at the centre of China's housing market slump, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all of his personal property confiscated.

Hui Ka Yan pleaded guilty in April to a number of charges, including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery.

Hui's sentencing marks a key moment in the fallout from Evergrande's collapse. It shook China's property sector and hit investors and domestic banks hard.

In practice, the court heard that Hui and his businesses "seriously disrupted" the Chinese property market, resulting in significant economic losses, state-controlled Xinhua News Agency documented.

Once ranked Asia's richest man, Hui has seen his wealth and influence dwindle as his firm unravelled.

Hui, additionally known as Xu Jiayin, rose from humble beginnings in rural China, where he was raised by his grandmother before venturing into property development and setting up Evergrande in 1996.

He oversaw the company's rapid rise through an aggressive expansion programme funded with sizeable amounts of borrowed capital.

Evergrande became China's biggest real estate developer, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£36.7bn). Hui was once estimated to be Asia's richest person. Evergrande: Why should I care regarding the crisis-hit Chinese property giant? Anxious Chinese home buyers reel from Evergrande crisis. Crisis-hit China Evergrande ordered to liquidate.

Notably, the firm was dealt a massive blow when Beijing introduced measures in 2020 to control debt in the country's property sector.

As the firm struggled to meet interest payments on its debts it sold properties at enormous discounts to stay afloat before collapsing in 2021.

In April, the court heard that the firm had taken millions of dollars in pre-sale funding from potential house buyers that were not employed for construction.

In practice, the funds had instead been channelled to new property developments, resulting in hundreds of unfinished projects.

Evergrande's implosion has often been blamed for triggering a broader slump in China's property market that continues to weigh heavily on the economy.

At its height, Evergrande was the biggest firm in the country's real estate industry. It created up concerning a third of China's gross domestic product at the time.

For context, the property market was a significant driver of expansion and an notable revenue source for local governments.

Notably, the industry's ongoing challenges have weighed heavily on the world's second largest economy as a number of other major developers faced financial woes.

In short, founder of collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande sentenced to life in prisonHui' s is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.