Beijing: China’s Ministry of Finance ( MOF ) announced on Friday ( Sep 13 ) that PwC’s audit of troubled property developer China Evergrande Group had a six-month business suspension.
According to a statement posted on the MOF site, the government also fined PwC Zhong Tian LLP, the registered finance company and the company’s main inland division in China, 116 million yuan ( US$ 16 million ).
China’s securities regulator announced in a separate declaration that it had seized the unit’s 27.7 million yuan in profits from the Evergrande situation and imposed a 297 million yuan fine.
The investigation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission ( CSRC ) found that PwC Zhong Tian helped cover up and “even condone” Evergrande’s fraud while auditing the developer’s annual results in 2019 and 2020.
” PwC has really eroded the basis of law and good faith, and damaged owners ‘ curiosity”, the CSRC said.
Since the securities regulator accused the developer of a US$ 78-billion scam over a two-year period of two years until 2020, Chinese officials have been looking into PwC’s part in Evergrande’s accounting procedures.
PwC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment right away.