Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. said Friday it has called on the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants to conduct proper auditing of corporate financial statements.
The action came after prosecutors earlier this week arrested four certified public accountants at ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Japanese unit of the U.S.-based group, for allegedly collaborating with former executives at Kanebo Ltd. to falsify accounting reports.
The four accountants are suspected of working together with two Kanebo executives to produce false consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2001 and 2002 that failed to show its liabilities exceeded its assets by 81.9 billion yen and 80.6 billion, yen respectively, in the two years.