TOKYO -- When Toshiba holds its annual shareholders' meeting on June 28, the company's fiscal 2016 financial results will not be ready because its auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata, has not approved them. This ongoing mess at the troubled Japanese electronics company shows how concentrated the global audit industry has become and the danger it poses to global capital markets.
Until fiscal 2015, Toshiba had its books audited by Ernst & Young ShinNihon. Toshiba switched to auditors in fiscal 2016 partly because of the accounting fraud that came to light in 2015 at the conglomerate. The change was made to avoid a repeat of such malpractice. PwC Aarata then raised questions about internal controls at Toshiba's nuclear unit in the U.S. and refused to approve the nine-month financial results to December 2016. read the rest here