A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced Xu Jiayin, former boss of real estate giant Evergrande Group, to life in prison after convicting him of multiple crimes.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province found Evergrande Group and Xu guilty of illegally absorbing public deposits, fundraising fraud, illegally issuing loans, fraudulent issuance of securities, unlawful disclosure of important information, and corporate bribery.

The court also convicted Xu of illegally using funds and embezzlement, and Evergrande Real Estate Group of fraudulent issuance of securities.

The court fined Evergrande Group 8.82 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) and Evergrande Real Estate Group 7 billion yuan. 

Xu was deprived of his political rights for life, and all his personal assets were ordered confiscated. The court also ordered the continued recovery of his illegal gains and restitution for any remaining shortfall.

According to the court, Xu was the actual controller of Evergrande Group, with overall responsibility for its operations. He managed and controlled Evergrande Real Estate Group and several other companies, with investments spanning real estate, property management, finance and other sectors.

The criminal acts of Xu and the two companies seriously disrupted the socialist market economy, infringed upon public and private property rights, and undermined the integrity of public officials in the performance of their duties, the court said, adding that given the exceptionally large sums involved, the particularly egregious circumstances, the extraordinarily heavy economic losses caused, and the extremely serious harm to society, they should be severely punished in accordance with the law.