The crisis in the Chinese real estate sector has claimed another victim. According to the authorities, the audit and management firm, which is implicated in the bankruptcy of the giant Evergrande, consulting PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is temporarily banned from operating in the country.
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Six months ban on all activities in China and a $67 million fine. The sanction was made official by the Ministry of Finance and the financial market regulator on Friday, September 13 in Beijing. This administrative sanction also includes the closure of the activities of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) branch in Guangzhou.
Chinese authorities accuse the audit firm of having validated by affixing its signature, from 2018 to 2020, financial reports which overestimated the income of the real estate group. Evergrande. Figures inflated by more than $78 billion. PwC turned a blind eye to the group’s fraud, the Chinese regulator said.
A system now denounced
Thus, some residential projects, which the auditors judged ” finished “, were still bare ground. The chairman of the global PwC network, Mohamed Kande, reacted immediately and judged the work of the Chinese subsidiary of his firm to be well below his expectations and completely unacceptable.
Further investigations into PwC are ongoing in Hong Kong, where Evergrande was listed. In 2022, PwC was the largest firm in the country, ahead of EY, Deloitte and KPMG. Since March, more than 30 listed companies have terminated their contracts with the firm in China.
Also readEvergrande: Hong Kong authorities to investigate PwC in charge of auditing Chinese giant’s accounts