Cheung Chung-kiu, chairman of the Hong Kong-listed developer C C Land, has sued Hui Ka Yan, the founder of China Evergrande, in Hong Kong’s High Court for HK$10.1 billion (about US$1.3 billion, our conversion) plus interest and costs, The Standard reported on 8 October 2026. According to the claim, the sum is what remains of loans made over a decade. No court has ruled, and as of 20 October we found no public response from Hui.
The case shows what happens to a fortune after a collapse: loans between friends become lawsuits, and court-appointed professionals take over the founder’s assets.
What Cheung Chung-kiu’s claim says
According to the claim, as reported by The Standard, the two men, long-time friends, made several oral loan agreements between May 2010 and October 2020. Cheung says he lent Hui HK$29 billion in total, repayable on demand, and that Hui repaid HK$18.65 billion from 2014 to 2020. On 15 November 2022, the claim says, Hui signed a written confirmation that HK$10.1 billion was still owed. A signed acknowledgment of a balance is usually easier to prove than an oral loan.
The receivers’ claim against Cheung
Evergrande’s liquidators, from Alvarez & Marsal, were also appointed by the Hong Kong court as receivers of Hui’s personal assets, Reuters reported. A receiver is a person the court appoints to find, hold and manage someone else’s assets. The aim is to preserve assets for the liquidators’ own claim for about US$6 billion in dividends and pay received by Hui and other former executives.
On 30 September 2026, acting for Hui and his company Xin Xin (BVI) Limited, they filed a claim for more than HK$19.15 billion (about US$2.5 billion) against Cheung and Jiang Dalong, described by The Standard as a former Evergrande Auto executive. The Standard did not say what that claim alleges. Jiang Dalong is also the birth name of Kai Johan Jiang, who once ran the Swedish carmaker NEVS, but we could not confirm that he is the defendant.
The two claims point in opposite directions: each side claims money from the other.
What is left of Hui Ka Yan’s fortune
Evergrande defaulted in 2021 owing more than $300 billion and was ordered into liquidation in Hong Kong in 2024. On 20 August 2026, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Hui to life in prison for financial fraud and other crimes, AP reported. The court also ordered all his personal property confiscated, Reuters reported; Hui’s lawyer said it was unclear how that would affect the Hong Kong cases. Compare the fight between administrators and NMC Health’s founder B. R. Shetty.
A fair caveat
Both lawsuits are allegations, read here through press reports rather than the filings, and neither has been tested in court. Hui’s lawyer told the Hong Kong court he has been barred from discussing his assets, Reuters reported.
What to watch
- Whether a defence is filed to Cheung’s claim, and by whom.
- What the receivers’ HK$19.15 billion claim alleges once the pleadings are public.
- How the Shenzhen confiscation and the Hong Kong receivership treat the same assets.
Questions to bring to your advisors
Are our family’s loans to friends written down? If a relative’s assets went to a receiver, which shared holding companies would be caught? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.
