The head of the highly indebted Chinese property group, Evergrande, is to be banned from trading shares for life, the company said late on Monday.

Hui Ka Yan was also fined ¥47 million ($6.5 million) by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for various financial offences.

In addition, the stock market regulator has fined the company ¥4.2 billion and penalised other executives.

Evergrande was accused of artificially increasing its turnover by more than ¥560 billion in 2019 and 2020.

The property developer was said to have issued bonds based on this false information.

The company had also failed to provide timely information on annual and half-year results, legal disputes and outstanding debts.

Mr Hui was placed under police supervision last September.

It was unclear whether further penalties would follow.

The Chinese property sector is in a serious crisis.

Evergrande is a giant in the industry and has the equivalent of more than $326 billion in debt.

In January, a court in Hong Kong ordered the dissolution of the company, following complaints from creditors.

However, it is unclear whether the judgement will be enforced in mainland China, where Evergrande does most of its business.

The crisis in the industry, which contributed around a fifth of the country’s annual economic output, weighed heavily on the world’s second-largest economy.

(dpa/NAN)