A Japanese court has given suspended prison sentences to three former ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants over an accounting fraud at textile and cosmetics maker Kanebo Ltd.
The scandal led Japan's Financial Services Agency to bar ChuoAoyama, a Japanese partnership with PwC, from performing audits between July 1 and Aug. 31. PwC has said it has been working with ChuoAoyama to implement an improvement plan, but that didn't stop the Big Four firm from launching a new, independent Japanese audit firm in July -- PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata.
Suspended prison terms to Kuniaki Sato (18 months), Kazutoshi Kanda (one year) and Seiichiro Tokumi (one year) for turning a blind eye to falsified annual reports at Kanebo and certifying those statements for five fiscal years ending in March 2003, the Japanese agency said.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange delisted Kanebo in June 2005 over the affair. Two former Kanebo executives also received suspended prison terms in March for falsifying financial statements.
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