A six-month ban from China is imposed on UK accountancy firm PwC

PwC's Chinese division has been barred from the nation for six months due to its involvement with the defunct Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande.

Additionally, the Big Four accounting company faces fines of over $62 million (£47 million) after Chinese authorities said the business assisted in concealing wrongdoing at Evergrande.

Burdened by debt, the real estate company entered insolvency in January.

When PwC audited Evergrande, the Chinese authorities said the company knew there were "major misstatements" in the financial accounts.

Consequently, PwC's operations have been halted for six months and "administrative penalties" have been levied by the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

Furthermore, PwC's earnings from auditing Evergrande were seized by China's securities regulator, who also imposed a punishment.

Five more employees have also departed, and Hemione Hudson, the global risk and regulatory head at PwC, has been brought in to manage the Chinese division in the interim.

 PwC acknowledged that the Evergrande audit work had been completed "well below" the firm's expectations.

After developing real estate in over 280 Chinese cities and diversifying into other industries, Evergrande faltered and ultimately failed in January. 

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of Evergrande, and the company have been hit with penalties and bans by the Chinese authorities for allegedly lying to them about the company's $78 billion (£61.6 billion) in earnings.

(Source: bbc.co.uk)