The chairman of the indebted real estate developer China Evergrande Group, Hui Ka Yan, is under investigation on suspicion of moving assets overseas, according to a Monday Wall Street Journal story.

Evergrande has been trying to obtain the consent of its creditors to restructure its offshore debt, but last week the situation became more difficult when the business announced it was unable to issue fresh debt owing to an inquiry into its primary China operation.

The troubled company announced on Friday that its chairman was under police surveillance and was accused of committing an unnamed crime, which only made matters worse.

Last week, Reuters reported that if the developer did not present a fresh debt restructuring plan by the end of October, a group of offshore creditors planned to join a court lawsuit to liquidate the firm.

During the week-long National Day festivities, Evergrande did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Evergrande, a company that represents a debt crisis in China’s property sector, which accounts for around a fifth of the country’s economy, has liabilities of more than $300 billion.

Following media reports that Hui had been taken away by police and was being kept under observation at a certain location, trading in the shares of Evergrande and two of its units was banned on Thursday.

(Adapted from Bangkokpost.com)