Beijing suspends PwC's China unit for six months in record penalty over Evergrande audit

September 13, 2024 17:26

Chinese regulators on Friday hit PwC's auditing unit in mainland China with a six-month business suspension and a record fine of 441 million yuan ($62 million) over the firm's audit of troubled property developer China Evergrande Group, Report informs referring to Reuters.

Delivering a strong rebuke to the Big Four firm, China's securities regulator said its investigation found that PwC Zhong Tian LLP "turned a blind eye" to and "even condoned" Evergrande's fraud while auditing the annual results of the developer's onshore flagship unit - Hengda Real Estate - in 2019 and 2020.

"PwC has seriously eroded the basis of law and good faith, and damaged investors' interest," said the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in a statement.

Chinese authorities have been examining PwC's role in Evergrande's accounting practices since the CSRC accused the developer in March of a $78-billion fraud over a period of two years through 2020.

PwC audited Evergrande for almost 14 years until early 2023.