Founder of China's Evergrande sentenced to life in prison

BREAKING: Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan sentenced to life in prison and had all his personal property confiscated, a pivotal moment in the fallout from the property giant's collapse that shook China's economy.

Life in prison for the man who built Evergrande. Hui Ka Yan pleaded guilty back in April to embezzlement and corporate bribery, and this morning a Shenzhen court handed down the sentence and confiscated everything he personally owns. You can see him here in the courtroom, guards on both sides, a long way from the days when he was China's richest man.

The company got hit too. Evergrande was fined eight point eight two billion yuan, about one point three billion dollars, and its property unit was ordered to pay another seven billion.

Hui was raised by his grandmother in rural China. He founded Evergrande in 1996, borrowed his way into becoming the country's biggest developer, worth over fifty billion dollars at its peak. Then it collapsed in 2021 and dragged China's whole housing market down with it, a slump the economy still hasn't climbed out of.

He built it on borrowed money. Now the state has taken back every last thing it made him.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at bbc.co.uk