The founder of China’s Evergrande Group, the most indebted property developer in the world, has pleaded guilty to charges including fraud and bribery, a Chinese court in the southern city of Shenzhen has said.
Founder Hui Ka Yan “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” in trial proceedings against him and Evergrande on Monday and Tuesday, the court said in a posting on its official Wechat account.
The property developer giant defaulted in 2021 on most of its $300 billion (roughly €255 billion) in liabilities and billions of dollars of wealth management product payments.
What do we know about Evergrande and Hui’s trial?
Evergrande and its founder Hui are accused of “illegally absorbing public deposits, fundraising fraud, illegally issuing loans, illegally using funds, fraudulently issuing securities, disclosing important information in violation of regulations, embezzlement and [corporate] bribery,” a court statement said.
Those attending the court hearings included representatives of those involved in past fundraising, as well as members of China’s legislative body, the National People’s Congress.
The court will issue its verdict at a later date it has yet to set.
How did Evergrande become the world’s most indebted property developer?
Founded in the mid-1990s, Evergrande had over 90% of its assets on China’s mainland, according to a 2024 ruling.
It shot to success and soon became a giant in the world of property development, in an age of swift urbanization and rising living standards.
But 2020 government restrictions on excessive borrowing dramatically narrowed its access to credit, and it defaulted on its debts a year later.
Hui was reportedly held by police in 2023, with China’s securities regulator fining him $6.6 million and barring him from the securities market for life in 2024. A Hong Kong court handed down the company a liquidation order in the same year.
China Evergrande’s shares were removed from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2025.
The company’s dramatic decline is emblematic of China’s property industry’s woes, which have dragged down the world’s second-largest economy and rattled financial systems at home and abroad.
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