A former steelworker who rose to become one of China’s richest people has pleaded guilty to charges including fundraising fraud after the collapse of Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer.

The property group’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, “pleaded guilty and expressed remorse” in trial proceedings at a court in China’s southern city of Shenzhen against him and Evergrande, the court said in a posting on its official WeChat account. He also pleaded guilty to misuse of funds and illegally taking public deposits.

The company has defaulted since 2021 on most of its $300bn (£222bn) in liabilities, in troubles emblematic of China’s property sector woes that have long dragged on economic growth.

Evergrande’s failure to repay billions of dollars of wealth management products unleashed frustration among the lower and middle classes, many of whom had investments wiped out, provoking protests and threatening social stability.

Reuters was unable to seek comment from Hui, 67, who has not been seen in public since Chinese authorities detained him in 2023, after the default of Evergrande.

Hui and the company also face charges of illegally extending loans, fraudulently issuing securities and bribery by units, the Shenzhen municipal intermediate people’s court added, with verdicts to be handed down later, although it did not set a date.

Jail for life and confiscation of property are the maximum penalties for illegal fundraising, while bribery can also bring life terms.

In 2024, China’s securities regulator fined Hui, formerly one of China’s richest men, $6.6m and barred him from the securities market for life, after finding Evergrande’s leading business had inflated earnings and committed securities fraud.

A former steel factory technician, Hui, raised by his grandmother in a rural village in central Henan province, built his fortune from low-priced homes.

After founding Evergrande in 1996, he turned it into China’s biggest property developer by contracted sales, aggressively taking on debt.

He did not shy away from new ventures, dabbling in electric cars and football, both a passion of China’s president, Xi Jinping.

In 2017, Hui was Asia’s richest person with a net worth of $45.3bn, according to Forbes. By 2023, his net worth was estimated at $3bn.

In 2024, Evergrande received a liquidation order from a Hong Kong court, and it was kicked off the Hong Kong stock exchange last year, bringing an end to a tumultuous boom-and-bust saga.

Outside mainland China, Evergrande’s liquidators have battled in court to freeze offshore assets of the founder and his ex-spouse in a struggle to claw back $6bn in dividends and remuneration paid to Hui and other former executives.

The liquidators of Evergrande declined to comment on the case.