Xu Jiayin

Xu is described by The Guardian as a former steelworker who rose to become one of China's richest people, later building Evergrande from real estate into sports, entertainment, and beverages, per Wikipedia.

Xu Jiayin's China Evergrande -yan to life imprisonment for “multiple combined crimes”, confiscating all of Hui's personal property.

Xu Jiayin's China Evergrande a court accepted a liquidation against Evergrande's property development unit a day after 67-year-old founder Hui Kan Yan was sentenced to .

Xu Jiayin's China Evergrande chinese property developer Hui Ka Yan has been sentenced to life in prison.

Xu Jiayin — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: former steelworker who founded Evergrande and built it into China's largest real-estate developer before its 2021 default on roughly $300 billion in liabilities; detained by Chinese authorities in 2023, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to fraud, embezzlement and bribery charges, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on August 20, 2026. The profile is grounded in the 4 sources indexed for this founder.

Xu Jiayin's China Evergrande yan pleaded guilty in April to several charges, including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery.

Evergrande defaulted in 2021 on roughly $300 billion in liabilities after government curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation narrowed its access to credit, an event the Guardian describes as emblematic of broader distress in China's property sector.

Xu Jiayin's role is documented as: founder; former Chairman and Communist Party Committee Secretary of Evergrande Group Sentenced to life imprisonment with lifetime revocation of political rights and confiscation of all personal property by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on August 20, 2026; last publicly seen at his April 2026 trial, having not appeared in public since his 2023 detention (research date: 2026-08-23).

In April 2026, Xu pleaded guilty at the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court to charges including fundraising fraud, misuse of funds, illegally taking public deposits, and, per the court, embezzlement and bribery; he also faced separate charges of illegally extending loans, fraudulently issuing securities, and bribery by units, with the court saying it would hand down verdicts later.

On August 20, 2026, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu to life imprisonment, revoked his political rights for life, and ordered confiscation of all his personal property; the court and Evergrande's real estate arm were separately fined a combined 15.82 billion yuan (approximately US$2.4 billion). The court stated that between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande and Xu engaged in 'continuous, large-scale financial fraud' to inflate assets and conceal liabilities, and that parties involved 'gained control of financial institutions' through bribery, without naming the institutions.