09/15/2024 – 8:01
China’s finance ministry and securities regulator have imposed record fines and a six-month suspension on PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) operations in the country over its audits of China Evergrande Group, the property developer whose collapse in late 2021 sparked China’s property crisis.
The $62 million fines, imposed by regulators today, were the largest penalty ever imposed in the country on a Big Four accounting firm. It is also the first major penalty imposed on an auditor related to China’s property collapse.
In addition, PwC’s operations in mainland China will be suspended for six months and its Guangzhou office has been closed by the Ministry of Finance. The suspension prevents the firm from participating in the busiest audit months of January to April, making it impossible to approve companies’ annual reports during that period.
The ban will also affect some Chinese companies that are in the process of going public in Hong Kong or the US and that relied on PwC to provide audited statements as a condition of their listing.
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