Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) faces severe repercussions following the Ever Grande financial fraud scandal. Numerous Chinese companies are terminating contracts, potentially costing PWC 561 million Yuan in audit revenue, reducing income by two-thirds. The scandal has also led to major layoffs, with employees sharing farewell messages on Xiao Hongshu, and many former PWC staff actively seeking new positions on job-seeking platform Boss Zhipin.
PWC cited external factors and market demand for recent layoffs, heavily affecting the Guangzhou audit department. Similar cuts occurred in Beijing and Shenzhen. The Shanghai office required staff to take 120 unpaid hours while earning only 20% of their salary. PWC also halved the annual income of its highest-earning partners. The Ever Grande financial fraud scandal, involving premature revenue recognition and inflated revenue by 564 billion Yuan, severely damaged PWC’s reputation, leading to significant penalties from the CSRC.
Since 2009, PWC audited Ever Grande and issued unqualified opinions for 12 years, suggesting accuracy and reliability in financial statements. However, PWC is now believed to have missed Ever Grande’s debt crisis, misleading investors. The investigation into PWC’s role in the fraud is nearly complete, with harsh penalties expected. PWC is negotiating to reduce the impact. The firm faces severe penalties and business losses in China, with over 70% of A-share clients cancelling contracts by July 24th, 2023.
PWC has lost nearly 30 clients among its Hong Kong-listed companies, totalling about 200 million Yuan in audit fees. The firm began losing large client orders in late May, triggering a domino effect. China Merchants Bank switched to Ernst & Young for 2024. Other losses include China Railway Group, which moved to Deloitte, saving 12.1 million Yuan. Data shows that in 2023, PWC had 107 A-share clients with a total audit fee of 963 million Yuan, including fees for internal control audits.
Initially, the Bank of China was set to pay PWC 101 million Yuan for a full-year audit in 2024, but the fee dropped to 35 million Yuan. In 2023, PWC received 193 million Yuan from the Bank, the highest audit fee among PWC’s A-share clients. Beyond client losses, real estate media Guangjian reports that creditors are preparing to sue PWC for errors causing financial losses. Ever Grande’s liquidators, Edward Simon Middleton and Hang Yongshu, are reportedly discussing the lawsuit with law firms, shaking the market significantly.
If Ever Grande’s liquidators sue, it could trigger one of PWC’s biggest reputational crises. PWC was recently fined £15 million by the UK FCA for failing to alert regulators to potential fraud at London Capital and Finance, which collapsed in 2019, causing significant taxpayer losses. This fine reignited debates over auditors’ responsibilities. The FCA noted that PWC identified significant issues during its 2016 audit, but LCF’s collapse forced UK taxpayers to compensate around £120 million.
Earlier this year, the FCA banned an LCF former director and imposed a fine, citing a senior LCF employee’s aggressive behavior towards auditors and provision of misleading information. The FCA noted that LCF’s actions and PWC’s audit work led PWC to suspect fraud, which they failed to report. PWC stated that the FCA acknowledged no wrongdoing by auditors and had settled with the FCA for an unintentional reporting breach. In July 2018, PWC was fined $625 million in the US for failing to detect fraud during audits of Colonial Bank, linked to TBW’s collapse.
The FDIC incurred $5.5 billion in damages, and the court ordered PWC to pay $625 million in compensation. The Enron scandal 23 years ago led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen, reducing the Big Five accounting firms to the Big Four. PWC benefited from Andersen’s downfall, gaining many of its clients and resources. Both firms had over 80 years of history.
Now, 23 years later, history seems to be repeating itself as PWC faces a similar reputational crisis to Arthur Andersen’s. As PWC loses major contracts, other global accounting firms are emerging as winners. Out of the 34 companies that left PWC, nine switched to Ernst & Young, eight to KPMG, six to Deloitte, and a few chose domestic firms. In March 2023, China’s Ministry of Finance revealed Deloitte’s audit failures, resulting in a three-month suspension and over 210 million Yuan in fines. Deloitte’s headquarters was also held responsible, with licenses revoked for two accountants and penalties for 12 employees. Deloitte claimed full cooperation with the investigation and acceptance of the penalties, though it regretted the Ministry of Finance’s views on their auditing standards.
Industry experts noted that Deloitte’s operations were not significantly affected by penalties, with the 212 million Yuan fine equalling the total audit fees earned from China CIC. China’s certified public accountant law allows for the confiscation of illegal income, with additional fines of one to five times the amount. Deloitte’s penalty was for serious deficiencies, not intentional fraud. PWC earned around 270 million Yuan in audit fees from Ever Grande over 14 years, potentially facing fines from 270 million to 1.35 billion Yuan. Rumours suggest that PWC could face fines up to 5 billion Yuan and a six-month suspension of its Mainland operations, including a ban on accepting new clients and signing audit reports for Chinese companies. This would be the harshest penalty ever imposed by China’s Ministry of Finance. Hong Kong regulators have also launched their own investigation into PWC. An anonymous letter from PWC partners raised concerns about the firm’s quality control and audit of Ever Grande. Industry experts believe penalties may follow in both regions.