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In the sights of the authorities: The billionaire and Evergrande boss Hui Ka Yan during an appearance in 2017
Photo: Bobby Yip / REUTERS
The head of the heavily indebted Chinese real estate group Evergrande is to be banned from trading shares for life and must pay a fine of 47 million yuan (around six million euros).
The company announced this on Monday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also fined the company 4.2 billion yuan and punished other executives.
The group is present in more than 280 Chinese cities and is one of the largest private companies in the People's Republic.
Company boss Hui Ka Yan was placed under police surveillance last September.
He founded Evergrande in 1997 and his personal fortune was estimated by Bloomberg in 2021 at a good six billion US dollars.
He and other executives are accused of artificially inflating the company's revenue by more than 560 billion yuan in 2019 and 2020 and issuing bonds based on the false information.
In addition, the company is said to have failed to provide timely information about annual and half-year results, legal disputes and outstanding debts.
The Chinese real estate sector is in a serious crisis.
Evergrande is in debt to the equivalent of more than 300 billion euros - not only to investors, but also to numerous private individuals who have made down payments for new apartments.
In January, a Hong Kong court ordered the company to be dissolved following complaints from creditors.
However, it is unclear whether the ruling will be implemented in mainland China, where Evergrande does most of its business.
vet/dpa