China Punishes Companies for Accounting Fraud

China has punished 16 executives of eight state-owned enterprises and 16 certified accountants in eight auditing companies for breaching accounting laws and regulations, the Ministry of Finance announced on May 10. These companies and individuals were found guilty of producing false accounting information as the Ministry of Finance made a random examination of the annual accounting reports of 100 state- owned enterprises (SOEs) in the end of last year.

A vice general manager of the No.1 China Construction Group Co. Ltd. has been prosecuted, and four other officials of the company have been punished by administrative rules.

The Beijing Auditing Office has been suspended from auditing SOE annual reports for one year, and its chief accountant has been fined 10,000 yuan. Another of the company's certified accountants was deprived of certification.

The Ministry of Finance said in a news release that this punishment is aimed at cracking down on false accounting information. It said that false accounting information and poor accounting work in companies have aroused wide attention nationwide.



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