PwC's China division has seen a reduction of over 60 partners following severe repercussions from its involvement in the Evergrande scandal, which involved concealing fraud through false audits. This decision aligns with a record fine of $62 million imposed by the Chinese government and a six-month suspension of the firm's operations in China. Notably impacted, PwC is struggling to maintain its business in the Asia-Pacific region, as it faces public backlash and a loss of major clients. Despite these challenges, the firm continues to register new partners, although the overall partner count has drastically decreased.
The number of partners at the mainland Chinese arm of PwC has recently fallen by 66, according to filings from December and January with the Unified Supervision Platform of the Chinese CPA Profession, a regulatory platform.
PwC has seriously eroded the basis of law and good faith, and damaged investors' interest, the commission investigating PwC's involvement said.
Evergrande, which collapsed in January 2024, was accused of inflating its revenues by $78 billion in 2019 and 2020 - one of the largest fraud cases in history.
Mohamed Kande, PwC's global chairman, said the findings of the Evergrande audit were in "stark contrast" to the high-quality work PwC produces and were not representative of what the firm stands for.
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