China jails Evergrande founder for life, fines firm over $2bn

Chinese authorities have sentenced Xu Jiayin, the founder of the embattled property giant Evergrande, to life in prison and imposed fines exceeding $2 billion on the company and its affiliate. The sentencing comes after Evergrande's high-profile default in 2021, which shook the global financial markets.

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Xu Jiayin was sentenced for multiple crimes and fined, received a life sentence, with political rights revoked for life and all his personal property confiscated.

Evergrande was once a symbol of China's booming property market, but its access to credit tightened significantly when the government implemented measures to curb excessive borrowing and speculation. The company officially defaulted in 2021 after struggling to meet its financial obligations to creditors.

A court in Shenzhen fined Evergrande and its real estate arm a combined 15.82 billion yuan ($2.4 billion). Xu Jiayin, also known as Hui Ka Yan, was sentenced for multiple crimes, including "large-scale financial fraud," receiving a life sentence with the revocation of political rights for life and the confiscation of all personal property. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court stated that between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande and Xu engaged in continuous, large-scale financial fraud to inflate assets and conceal liabilities, and gained control of financial institutions through bribery.

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violated national laws by engaging in continuous, large-scale financial fraud and other means to inflate assets and conceal liabilities

In addition to Xu, five other senior Evergrande executives were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 18 years for crimes including fraud. Xu had previously pleaded guilty in April to charges that included embezzlement and bribery.

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gained control of financial institutions through bribery