(Reuters) -The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said on Friday it had revoked the registration of JTC Fair Song CPA Firm because the Chinese company had “repeatedly” violated the agency’s rules and refused to cooperate with a related investigation.
The company failed to make required filings over a multi-year period and refused to produce documents and information in response to formal demands from the U.S. accounting overseer, the agency said.
The Shenzhen, China-based company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the U.S. watchdog, the company neither admitted nor denied the agency’s findings but consented to a disciplinary order censuring the firm and revoking its registration.
The watchdog, which is overseen by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, decided not to impose a $50,000 penalty after considering the company’s financial resources, according to the statement.
U.S. and Chinese authorities in 2022 struck a landmark deal to allow the watchdog, which was created in the wake of the Enron-era corporate accounting scandals, to vet accounting firms in China and Hong Kong, a long-standing source of tension between the world’s two largest economies.
“Today’s order should serve as a stark reminder that firms must cooperate with the Board’s investigatory process,” Robert Rice, head of enforcement and investigations for the watchdog, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Paul Simao)
