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Evergrande founder sentenced to life in prison

A Shenzhen court convicted Xu Jiayin of large-scale financial fraud and imposed a 15.82 billion yuan fine on Evergrande and a subsidiary following the developer’s 2021 default

A court in Shenzhen, southern China, sentenced Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin to life in prison on Thursday and fined the property giant and one of its subsidiaries 15.82 billion yuan, or more than $2.4 billion, following the developer’s dramatic 2021 default that shook China’s real estate market.

Evergrande Group had long been one of the defining players in China’s property sector, riding a decade-long boom and helping fuel the aspirations of millions of families seeking to own a home. But the company’s access to credit deteriorated sharply after the government introduced restrictions on lending and property speculation. Five years ago, Evergrande defaulted after becoming unable to repay its creditors.

Xu Jiayin, also known in Cantonese as Hui Ka Yan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple offenses, including what the court described as “large-scale financial fraud.” He was also stripped of his political rights for life and had all his personal assets confiscated.

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“Xu Jiayin was convicted of multiple crimes, fined, sentenced to life imprisonment, stripped of his political rights for life, and had all his personal assets confiscated,” the Shenzhen court in Guangdong province said in a post on its WeChat account.

Between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande and Xu, who served as the company’s chief executive, “violated national laws by committing continuous and large-scale financial fraud and using other means to inflate assets and conceal liabilities,” the court said.

The court also said that, through embezzlement, the defendants obtained control of financial institutions, although it did not identify those institutions.

Xu pleaded guilty in April to charges that also included embezzlement.

Five other senior Evergrande executives were sentenced on Thursday to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years for offenses including fraud.

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