The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has slammed PwC China with a $7 million dollar fine as it alleges that the company failed to detect or prevent extensive cheating by its staff during internal training exams in mainland China and Hong Kong.
According to the PCAOB, the practice involved more than 1,000 employees from PwC Hong Kong, and hundreds more from PwC China.
This is the first the time the US agency would enforce a penalty against Chinese companies since a 2022 agreement that allowed US regulators to inspect and investigate firms in mainland China and Hong Kong that audit the books of Chinese companies listed on Wall Street.
PCAOB said PwC workers from 2018 to 2020, “engaged in improper answer sharing — by either providing or receiving access to answers through two unauthorized software applications — in connection with online tests for mandatory internal training courses related to the firms’ US auditing curriculum”.
Credit: CNN
