U.S. securities regulators levied fines totaling more than $7 million against three China-based auditors for a variety of offenses including issuing a false audit report. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversees auditors of public companies listed on U.S. exchanges, announced Thursday that it had imposed fines against PwC China and PwC Hong Kong for “improper answer sharing” by hundreds of employees on tests for mandatory internal training courses.
It also sanctioned mainland China-based firm Shandong Haoxin and four of its auditors for falsifying an audit report, failing to maintain independence from its issuer client and plagiarizing the work of another accounting firm. These sanctions are the largest civil money penalties the PCAOB has ever imposed against firms in mainland China and Hong Kong and the first time the regulator has brought an enforcement action against a mainland China auditor. “The days of China-based firms evading accountability are over,” PCAOB Chair Erica Williams said at a press conference Thursday. “The PCAOB will take action to protect investors on U.S. markets and impose tough sanctions against anyone who violates PCAOB rules and standards, no matter where they are located,” she added. U.S. regulators accessed the financial records of Chinese auditors of U.S.-listed …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
It also sanctioned mainland China-based firm Shandong Haoxin and four of its auditors for falsifying an audit report, failing to maintain independence from its issuer client and plagiarizing the work of another accounting firm. These sanctions are the largest civil money penalties the PCAOB has ever imposed against firms in mainland China and Hong Kong and the first time the regulator has brought an enforcement action against a mainland China auditor. “The days of China-based firms evading accountability are over,” PCAOB Chair Erica Williams said at a press conference Thursday. “The PCAOB will take action to protect investors on U.S. markets and impose tough sanctions against anyone who violates PCAOB rules and standards, no matter where they are located,” she added. U.S. regulators accessed the financial records of Chinese auditors of U.S.-listed …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]