by Daniel Milroy Maher
Deloitte China has requested a US federal court dismiss a case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to obtain its Longtop Financial Technologies audit work papers.
In its filing, Deloitte stated now the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) had struck a deal with Chinese regulators on document sharing, the SEC would be able to acquire its paper through these means.
In a number of overseas jurisdictions, the PCAOB is permitted to routine onsite inspections of foreign firms auditing US listed companies, but Chinese secrecy laws have so far prohibited this.
After months of problems arising from jurisdictional differences, the PCAOB, its Chinese counterpart and the Chinese Ministry of Finance signed their first Memorandum of Understanding last week. This has enabled the production and exchange of audit documents relevant to investigations in both jurisdictions.
However, the SEC has insisted it still needs the papers from Deloitte to carry out its fraud investigation on Deloitte's former client, Longtop.
The result of Deloitte China's request with the federal court is expected to be heard by June.
At the time of publishing, Deloitte had failed to respond to the International Accounting Bulletin's request for comment.
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