Proactive Investors – PWC, the UK-based Big Four accountancy firm, has been suspended from China for six months and fined £47 million for its work on the collapsed property giant Evergrande.
Chinese authorities said PWC had helped cover up fraud at Evergrande, which collapsed in January after property values in China tumbled.
PwC China said its work on Evergrande had fallen “unacceptably below the standards” and apologised for the impact on its clients.
The Chinese authorities said PwC knew there were “major misstatements” in Evergrande’s accounts when it carried out the audits.
Money that PWC earned from its audits of Evergrande has been confiscated by Chinese regulators, which said “PwC had “seriously eroded the basis of law and good faith.”
Hemione Hudson, PwC’s head of global risk and regulatory, has been sent to run the business in China on an interim basis.
Evergrande, which built property in more than 280 Chinese cities, has been accused of inflating its revenues by US$78 billion (£61.6bn).
