Evergrande: The Man Who Faked $78 Billion and Got Life in Prison

78% of Evergrande's 2020 revenue did not exist. How China's biggest developer became a $300 billion hole — and why its founder got life. On 20 August 2026 a Shenzhen court sentenced Hui Ka Yan, founder of China Evergrande, to life in prison. This film follows the money: the pre-sale machine, the bond that paid 13.75%, the auditor whose site-visit records didn't match, the 1.5 million homes paid for and never delivered — and the question the court answered: was it a fraud that used a boom, or a boom that needed a fraud? CHAPTERS 0:00 The sentence 0:54 Part 1 · The Man 2:34 How it was supposed to work 3:06 Why it couldn't 4:18 Part 2 · Everyone Lends 5:08 The first warning 5:47 A car company with no cars 6:29 Three red lines and a letter 7:35 The people at the door 9:33 The default 10:21 The man who said it first 10:56 The chairman disappears 11:49 Part 3 · The Books 12:33 The auditor's notebook 14:14 The plea 15:04 The sentence, in full 16:48 What hollow means 18:04 Next case SOURCES China Securities Regulatory Commission, decisions No. 49 (21 May 2024) and No. 98 (6 Sept 2024); Ministry of Finance of the PRC (13 Sept 2024); Market Misconduct Tribunal, Hong Kong (2016); Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong (20 Oct 2016); HKEX announcements (28 Sept 2023, 29 Jan 2024, 20 Aug 2025); Fitch Ratings (9 Dec 2021); Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC News, CNBC, Caixin, Xinhua; Yahoo Finance; IMF WEO. NEWS FOOTAGE — short excerpts for commentary and criticism from: BBC News; CNA; CNBC Television; Reuters; SCMP Clips. Titles and links in the comments (FULL CREDITS). PHOTOS & VIDEO — Wikimedia Commons, by: Alexchen4836 (CC BY-SA 3.0); Andreas Bunen (CC BY 3.0); Andrew and Annemarie (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0); Ank Kumar (CC BY-SA 4.0); Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bert Brothers (CC BY 3.0); Boubloub (CC0); China News Service (CC BY 4.0); CRCHF (CC BY-SA 3.0); Dinkun Chen (CC BY-SA 4.0); Eduardo M. C. (CC BY 2.0); Fumikas Sagisavas (CC BY 4.0); Ivor (Commons user Thisisivor) (Public domain); Jay Sterling Austin (CC BY 2.0); LBM1948 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Lhzss8 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Liuxingy (CC BY-SA 4.0); LN9267 (CC BY-SA 4.0); MNXANL (CC BY-SA 4.0); Mx. Granger (CC0); Nrya (CC BY-SA 4.0); peter boy12qq12 (CC BY 3.0); Sparktour (CC BY-SA 4.0); Stang_wm (CC BY 2.0); STW932 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Tim Wu (CC BY-SA 4.0); Vikarna (CC BY-SA 4.0); wanghongliu (CC BY-SA 3.0); Wilfredor (CC0); Windmemories (CC BY-SA 4.0); YikyuenG (CC BY-SA 4.0); 中少 (CC BY-SA 4.0); 王启生 (CC BY 3.0); 維基小霸王 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Full titles and links in the comments (FULL CREDITS). Scenes marked “Reconstruction” are AI-generated illustrations of described events, not archive footage; no real person is depicted in them. Narration uses a synthetic voice; music generated with ElevenLabs. Hollow Money — financial crime, documented. New investigation every two weeks. #Evergrande #China #Fraud #Documentary