Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants: Fined PwC and its two partners a total of HK$1.6 million for multiple audit deficiencies.

On October 16th, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued a statement condemning PricewaterhouseCoopers and its two partners for multiple audit deficiencies, and imposed a total fine of HK$1.6 million. This includes a fine of HK$800,000 for PricewaterhouseCoopers, HK$600,000 for Mr. Cheng Kwong On, and HK$200,000 for Mr. Kong Ling Yin. The Institute stated that the auditors had deficiencies in their audit work on revenue recognition, as they did not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence on the revenue recorded by DYNASTY WINES (00828) for the years 2010 and 2011, resulting in them incorrectly issuing an unqualified opinion. During those two years, Mr. Cheng was the engagement partner leading the PricewaterhouseCoopers engagement team, and Mr. Kong was appointed as the project quality control reviewer for the above-mentioned audits, but they failed to identify the lack of sufficient appropriate audit evidence by the project team. The authorities issued the decision notifications to PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Cheng, and Mr. Kong on February 20th, 2025. The regulators subsequently applied for a review of the decision with the Accountancy and Financial Reporting Review Panel on March 13th, 2025, but ultimately withdrew the application voluntarily and agreed to pay the litigation costs to the authorities, making the decision notifications effective immediately.