By Xie Yu
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese regulators on Friday hit PwC's auditing unit in mainland China with a six-month business suspension and a record fine of 441 million yuan ($62 million) over the firm's audit of troubled property developer China Evergrande Group.
The business suspension and fines are the toughest ever penalty received by a Big Four accounting firm in China. The regulators' action puts the spotlight the Big Four's activities in the country and on how big a role they play in auditing major Chinese companies.
Chinese authorities have been examining PwC's role in the accounting of Hengda Real Estate, the name of Evergrande's mainland unit, since the China Securities Regulatory Commission accused the developer in March of a $78 billion fraud over a period of two years through 2020.
"We are disappointed by PwC Zhong Tian's audit work of Hengda, which fell unacceptably below the standards we expect of member firms of the PwC network," PwC network, the alliance of PwC's global member units, said in a statement.
