The government will slap major auditing firm ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers with a business suspension order for its accountants' involvement in window-dressing by Kanebo Ltd., Financial Services Minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday.

The order, expected later this week, would be the FSA's first suspension of one of Japan's four major auditing firms.

Three accountants who worked at the Japanese unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Group were charged last October with conspiring with executives at Kanebo to falsify the ailing cosmetics firm's financial reports in fiscal 2001 and 2002, covering up more than 160 billion yen in liabilities.