China Evergrande Founder Accused of Exaggerating Revenue by $78 Billion

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China Evergrande Group exaggerated its revenue by more than $78 billion and committed securities fraud over two years before its spectacular collapse in 2021, a top Chinese regulator said. The China Securities Regulatory Commission accused Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande, of “making decisions and organizing fraud,” the company reported in a filing to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges on Monday night. Mr. Hui was fined $6.5 million and banned from China’s financial markets for life. Xia Haijun, a former chief executive, was fined $2 million and also banned from financial markets, along with several other executives. The company’s main onshore unit, Hengda, was fined $580 million. The New York Times reported in December that questionable accounting and poor oversight led to Evergrande’s demise. Over the years before it defaulted on its debt, Evergrande had been treating money it received for apartments as revenue even though at times it had not built those apartments, the Times reported.