Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China Evergrande, has pleaded guilty to charges including fundraising fraud in court proceedings in the southern city of Shenzhen, according to the court.
The former steelworker, who became one of China’s richest people before Evergrande’s collapse, “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” in the case against him and the company, the court said in a post on its official WeChat account.
Evergrande was once the world’s most indebted property developer, and its downfall has become one of the most closely watched corporate crises in China’s property sector. Hui also pleaded guilty to misuse of funds and illegally taking public deposits, the court said.
The proceedings are the latest development in the long-running fallout from Evergrande’s financial collapse. The company’s debt burden and wider troubles in China’s property market have drawn sustained attention from regulators, investors and homebuyers.
Hui’s rise from factory worker to billionaire made him one of the most prominent figures in China’s property boom. His guilty plea marks a stark turn in the story of a developer that once symbolized the scale and speed of growth in the country’s real estate sector.
No further details of the court’s decision were included in the posting cited by the court.
