The founder of Evergrande, one of China’s largest property developers, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all of his personal property confiscated.
Hui Ka Yan, 67 and once named by Forbes as China’s richest man, with a net worth of $42.5bn (£31.2bn) in 2017, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges.
These included misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, illegally taking public deposits, illegally extending loans, fraudulently issuing securities and bribery.
The company Hui founded, Evergrande Group, was fined 8.8bn yuan (£950m), while its property arm was fined 7bn yuan, according to Chinese state media.
Hui’s convictions relate to a debt crisis at Evergrande, which shook China at a time when the government had been trying to make the world’s second-largest economy less reliant on the real estate sector.
Evergrande, which delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange last year, has…
These frauds exploit emotional vulnerability and trust rather than technical weaknesses.
- Romance Scams: Scammers build long-term online relationships with victims, eventually fabricating a “crisis” (medical emergency, legal trouble, or travel costs) that requires the victim to send money.
- Pig Butchering: A hybrid scam where the criminal builds a romantic or platonic relationship to eventually “tutor” the victim in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment.