Accused of financial crimes. Total fine of approximately 2.35 billion dollars to the company
The founder of Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, Xu Jiayin, has been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court for a series of financial crimes. This was reported by China Central Television (CCTV), according to which the Evergrande group was fined 8.82 billion yuan (around 1.3 billion dollars), while Evergrande Real Estate will have to pay a fine of 7 billion yuan. In total approximately 2.35 billion dollars. The Shenzhen Intermediate Court also sentenced Xu to having his political rights revoked for life and all his personal assets confiscated.
According to what was ascertained by the court and reported by CCTV, between 2016 and 2021 Evergrande, Evergrande Real Estate and Xu inflated assets and hid liabilities through “continuous and large-scale financial fraud”.
The alleged conduct includes illegal deposit taking, fundraising fraud, fraudulent issuance of securities and irregular disclosure of material information. Xu also allegedly used bribes to gain control of financial institutions and allow Evergrande to illegally obtain credit and insurance funds.
The court defined the conduct as particularly serious, underlining the size of the sums involved, the huge economic losses caused and the serious damage to the order of the market economy. On the same day, the Shenzhen court sentenced five other high-level Evergrande executives to sentences ranging from 18 to six years in prison at first instance.
