Chinese property developer Hui Ka Yan, founder of the Evergrande real estate group, has been sentenced to life in prison and the companies were fined a total of more than $2 billion, a court in the southern city of Shenzhen said Thursday (August 20, 2026).
“The harm to society is extremely serious. The Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court convicted Hui, 67, and Evergrande of engaging in large-scale financial fraud in inflating the group’s assets and concealing its liabilities. Evergrande Group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion), and Evergrande Real Estate Group was fined 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion), the court said in the statement.
Therefore, severe punishment should be given in accordance with the law.
In a statement, the court also said Hui, also known as Xu Jiayin, abused his position in orchestrating fraud and misappropriating company assets. “The amount involved is exceptionally large, the circumstances are particularly egregious, and extraordinarily heavy economic losses have been caused,” the court’s statement said. Hui’s sons, Xu Tenghe and Xu Zhijian, were also sentenced alongside senior Evergrande executives and others linked to the group on charges including illegally taking public deposits, fundraising fraud and the illegal use of funds, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said. A photo of Hui’s courtroom appearance released by the Shenzhen court on Thursday (August 20, 2026) showed an aged Hui, who used to be a high-profile figure but had long been out of public view, wearing a navy blue shirt and standing between two uniformed officers behind a sign that read “defendant”.
His story was one of rags-to-riches. He was one of many businessmen who have also gained political influence by joining a major advisory organisation, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress. Born in 1958 into a rural family in central China’s Henan province, he worked in the steel industry in the 1980s before establishing Evergrande, which then prospered during China’s housing market boom.
