PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS affiliates in Hong Kong and China and a Chinese audit firm have agreed to pay a total of US$7.9 million to the US accounting watchdog over failures in their audits of US-listed companies, the regulator said on Thursday (Nov 30).

PricewaterhouseCoopers firms in Hong Kong and China have agreed to pay a total of US$7 million for violating quality control standards after they failed to detect or prevent extensive answer-sharing on mandatory training courses, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) said in a statement.

The PCAOB also hit Shandong Haoxin Certified Public Accountants and four auditors with fines of US$940,000 for violations, including issuing a false audit report and failing to maintain independence from a public company client.

The fines are some of the largest the PCAOB has ever levied, the watchdog said in its statement. The firms did not admit or deny the PCAOB’s findings. PWC and Haoxin did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in May said it found a slew of deficiencies in audits of US-listed Chinese companies performed by KPMG in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. At the time, the PCAOB chair said it would make referrals to its enforcement staff where appropriate.

The PCAOB, which oversees public company auditors, gained access to Chinese company auditors’ records for the first time last year following more than a decade of negotiations with Chinese authorities. The agency has said it typically discovers problems after it first gains access to a foreign company’s audit records. REUTERS

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