LIFE SENTENCE AND EVERY ASSET SEIZED FOR CHINA'S ONCE-RICHEST MAN

🚨 $45 billion to $0. And a life sentence.

Celebrity Net Worth reports that on August 20, 2026, a Shenzhen court sentenced Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan, 67, to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges. The court also ordered all of his personal property confiscated.

In 2017 he was the richest person in China, with a fortune CNW estimated at $45 billion. He founded Evergrande in Guangzhou in 1996 with fewer than 20 employees. The formula: borrow, buy land, build fast, sell apartments, then borrow more.

📉 The debt is the whole story. Evergrande's liabilities were roughly $8 billion at the end of 2009. By 2020 they were over $300 billion, making it the world's most indebted property developer. When Chinese regulators moved to rein in the sector, the refinancing stopped and the model broke.

Authorities determined Evergrande's principal mainland subsidiary recognized revenue in advance, overstating 2019 and 2020 revenue by a combined 564 billion yuan, about $78 billion, per CNW. Those statements were used while the company raised money from investors. Hui was fined about $6.6 million in 2024 and banned from China's securities market for life.

Evergrande was ordered liquidated by a Hong Kong court in January 2024 and delisted in 2025. The company and its main property subsidiary were fined a combined 15.82 billion yuan, roughly $2.35 billion. Hui's two sons were among the other defendants sentenced to prison.

CNW now estimates his net worth at $0. Liquidators have spent years tracing billions in dividends he collected after the 2009 IPO.

‼️ Should the homebuyers who paid for unfinished apartments get paid before the creditors?

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