A onetime symbol of China's property boom is now at the center of its bust. Hui Ka Yan, the billionaire founder of China Evergrande Group, has pleaded guilty to multiple financial crimes, including fraud, bribery, and embezzlement, in a Shenzhen court, state media reported Tuesday, per the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors accused 67-year-old Hui, Evergrande, and its main mainland unit, Hengda Real Estate, of illegal fundraising, fraudulent securities issuance, improper information disclosure, and corporate bribery during a two-day trial that ended with Hui expressing remorse. Sentencing and corporate verdicts will be announced later.
Hui, a former steel technician, built Evergrande from a 1996 startup into China's top homebuilder by sales, becoming Asia's richest man in 2017 with a net worth of $45.3 billion, per Reuters. But his empire—expanded into soccer and electric cars—was propped up by debt that eventually topped $300 billion; Evergrande defaulted on offshore bonds in 2021, helping trigger a broader property slump. A Hong Kong court ordered the company liquidated in early 2024 after failed restructuring talks, while Chinese regulators later hit Hengda with about $580 million in penalties for allegedly faked financials and barred Hui from financial markets for life.
He was detained in 2023 amid the criminal probe and has not been seen in public since, per Reuters. A legal expert tells the outlet he is likely to be handed life sentences "given the amount of money involved, the number of victims," and the social impact of his crimes, which is "almost unprecedented in China."
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