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Evergrande tycoon at the heart of China’s property crisis jailed for life
Sylvie Zhuang, CNN Thu, August 20, 2026 at 4:18 AM EDT 4 min read The founder of embattled property behemoth Evergrande and formerly one of China's richest men was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, according to state media, the latest chapter of ignominy for a one-time symbol of the nation's economic boom. Hui Ka Yan pled guilty in April to multiple charges related to his time as chairman of China's largest real-estate developer, including fraud and misuse of funds. It completes a dramatic downfall for Hui – also known as Xu Jiayin – who emerged from humble origins during a turbulent political era, to climb to the highest levels of influence and wealth. Hui's Evergrande Group has been hobbled by debt since 2021, with $300 billion in liabilities. Its crisis – along with those of other property giants – has been at the heart of a wider Chinese real-estate shock that has tested the world's second-largest economy and threatened to spark a global contagion effect. As well as the life sentence, Hui was also ordered to forfeit his personal assets and was stripped of all political rights, China's official Xinhua news agency reported, citing a verdict handed down by a court in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen. Evergrande Group was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.23 billion), and Evergrande Real Estate was fined 7 billion yuan, it said – some of the biggest corporate criminal fines ever handed down by the Chinese government. Hui and Evergrande Group were found guilty of several charges, including financial fraud; inflating assets and concealing liabilities; illegally absorbing public deposits; fundraising fraud; and illegal disclosure of important information. The sentences mark a key moment in China's continuing real-estate crisis, which has dented consumer confidence in the country – and caused a headache for a government that stakes its legitimacy on rising prosperity. A China Evergrande property development is in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, on August 13, 2025. - Costfoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images "The criminal conduct of China Evergrande Group, Evergrande Real Estate, and Hui Ka Yan seriously disrupted the order of the socialist market economy, infringed upon public and private property rights, and undermined the integrity of public officials in the performance of their duties," said the verdict. Hui's is a classic rags-to-riches story. Born in the late 1950s in a small village in central China's Henan province, he was raised by his paternal grandmother. After graduating from high school in 1975, he took jobs on a farm and as a security guard. He passed the college entrance exam at the second attempt in 1978, and studied metallurgy at Wuhan Institute of Iron and Steel, relying on scholarships and stipends to pay his way.