The founder of China’s Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, has pleaded guilty to charges including fraud and bribery, a court in Shenzhen said. The court posted on its official WeChat account that Hui Ka Yan “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” during trial proceedings held on Monday and Tuesday.
Evergrande, which defaulted in 2021 on most of its roughly $300 billion in liabilities and unpaid wealth-management product obligations, faces a raft of accusations. The court said charges against Hui and Evergrande include illegally absorbing public deposits, fundraising fraud, illegally issuing loans, illegally using funds, fraudulently issuing securities, violating disclosure rules, embezzlement and corporate bribery. Representatives of past fundraising participants and members of the National People’s Congress attended the hearings. The court has not yet set a date for the verdict.
Founded in the mid-1990s, Evergrande grew rapidly amid China’s urbanization and rising living standards, with over 90% of its assets on the mainland according to a 2024 ruling. Government curbs on excessive borrowing introduced in 2020 sharply reduced the group’s access to credit, leading to its 2021 default. Hui was reportedly detained in 2023; China’s securities regulator fined him $6.6 million and imposed a lifetime ban from the securities market in 2024. That year a Hong Kong court ordered the company’s liquidation, and Evergrande’s shares were removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2025.
Evergrande’s collapse symbolizes broader troubles in China’s property sector, which have weighed on the country’s economy and stirred concerns in domestic and international financial markets.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher