China bans PwC for six months over Evergrande audit
Beijing authorities said Friday they have banned accountancy giant PwC for six months and slapped it with a fine of $62.2 million over problems with its audit of beleaguered property company Evergrande.
"After investigation, it was found that PricewaterhouseCoopers and its Guangzhou branch knew that there were major misstatements in Evergrande Real Estate's financial statements during the audit," China's Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
The Ministry added it had imposed administrative penalties on PwC that included the "suspension of its business for six months and the revocation of its Guangzhou branch".
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
In a separate statement Friday, China's top securities regulator said it had penalised PwC, while another fine in coordination with the finance ministry brought the total to 441 million yuan ($62.2 million).
The statement said the penalties were because the firm had "failed to perform due diligence" in its work involving Evergrande.
PwC "failed to maintain due professional scepticism, failed to make correct professional judgments, and failed to discover Evergrande Real Estate's financial fraud, which was of large scale and high proportion", it added.
