Evergrande liquidators ask Harvard for $2mn

By the Editorial Team · Friday, October 23, 2026

Liquidators handling China Evergrande Group's bankruptcy have demanded the return of a $2 million donation made to Harvard University as part of efforts to recover assets during the company’s liquidation. This move highlights the ongoing attempts to reclaim international funds amid Evergrande’s massive debt crisis and follow previous legal actions against other entities tied to the developer.

Liquidators overseeing the collapse of China Evergrande Group have initiated efforts to recover a $2 million donation made to Harvard University, underscoring the complexity of recouping assets as they wind down the failed property developer’s operations. The demand, issued by Eddie Middleton and Tiffany Wong of Alvarez & Marsal, marks one of several attempts to reclaim funds from Evergrande’s international dealings amid an ongoing liquidation process.

The disputed donation forms part of a larger $14 million sum given by Evergrande to the U.S. university in 2020. Harvard had previously announced a $115 million pledge by Evergrande to support five years of collaborative Covid-19 research through a joint project with a Chinese research institute. The company later failed to fulfill this arrangement, which drew scrutiny from then-U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. Harvard did not provide a comment on the liquidators’ request.

Evergrande’s downfall in 2021 ended over two decades of rapid growth in China’s property sector. The developer relied on a business model that recycled prepayments from apartment buyers into funding new projects, accumulating more than $300 billion in liabilities at its peak. Its Hong Kong-listed entity was ordered to be wound up in 2024, with liquidators focusing primarily on assets outside mainland China, where recovery prospects remain “considered remote.” To date, only about $436 million has been recouped from creditor claims totaling $46 billion.

Aside from the Harvard donation, the liquidators are pursuing a range of assets and claims including a Claude Monet painting and other artworks, receivables linked to an unnamed publicly traded company, various club memberships in Hong Kong, and a non-operational private jet based in Guangzhou anticipated to fetch approximately $12 million.

In addition, they are seeking to hold auditors PwC accountable for $8.4 billion following findings of fraud linked to Evergrande’s financial statements. A Hong Kong court last month ruled that the liquidators could pursue claims against PwC’s global parent organization as well as its mainland China and Hong Kong affiliates.

Evergrande’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, who was once China’s richest individual, was sentenced to life imprisonment in August for offenses including bribery and falsifying accounts. Alongside Hui, 56 others connected to the company—among them his two sons—received prison sentences ranging from 20 months to 18 years. The parent company and its principal subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate, were fined a combined total of approximately $1.3 billion after regulators uncovered inflated revenue figures exceeding $80 billion in 2019 and 2020.

The liquidators have also noted earlier donations totaling $156 million made to Harvard in 2013 and 2016, which they say lacked clear commercial justification, suggesting Evergrande derived no tangible benefit from these transfers. Their pursuit of these sums reflects a broader strategy to exhaust all possibilities for asset recovery amid the company’s unprecedented collapse.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.