Evergrande founder given life sentence

A court in Shenzhen handed a life prison term on Thursday to Hui Ka Yan, founder of China Evergrande Group, according to The Express Tribune. The verdict came five years after the developer's collapse, which unsettled both China's economy and its financial markets. Hui, once Asia's richest man, had admitted guilt in April to eight charges.

The offences he accepted included misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, unlawful deposit-taking, improper lending, fraudulent securities issuance and bribery. Evergrande, formerly the country's leading developer, has defaulted on the bulk of liabilities valued at $300 billion.

The sentence also means Hui's entire personal property will be seized. The case reflects a prolonged downturn in China's property sector, which has weighed on the world's second-largest economy for years.