China Securities Regulatory Commission

Chinese authorities have been examining PwC’s role in the accounting of Hengda Real Estate since the CSRC accused the developer in March of a $78-billion fraud over a period of two years through 2020.

The CSRC said in a separate statement that it had confiscated PwC Zhong Tian’s revenue involved in the Evergrande case totalling 27.7 million yuan and fined the unit 297 million yuan.

Chinese regulators have 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.

“PwC has, to a certain extent, covered up and even condoned Evergrande’s financial fraud and fraudulent issuance of corporate bonds,” said the CSRC statement.

“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.

Authorities have said developer Evergrande's main onshore unit Hengda overstated its revenue by 564 billion yuan in the two years through 2020.

The work performed by PwC Zhong Tian's Hengda audit team fell well below our high expectations and was completely unacceptable