SEC Sanctions China Arms Of Big Four Accounting Firms

The four major accounting firms have been sanctioned by U.S. regulators for not turning over documents related to investigations of potential fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission said the Chinese arms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young refused to provide the agency with documents related to audit work for nine companies based in China that had securities registered in the U.S. The four firms will pay $500,000 each and agreed that they did not produce the documents before 2012 but did not admit or deny other findings in the order. Under the settlement, if future document productions fail to meet certain criteria, the SEC can impose additional remedial measures.