PwC has been fined $7mn after a US regulator found that more than 1,000 of its audit staff in China and Hong Kong cheated on internal training exams designed to get them up to speed on US standards.The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said that PwC staff improperly shared test answers over the course of at least two years up to 2020. Without admitting the allegations, PwC’s Hong Kong firm agreed to pay a $4mn settlement and PwC China agreed to pay $3mn.

The latter is the first penalty imposed by the PCAOB on the Chinese arm of a Big Four accounting firm. For years, the agency was frozen out of China, but a deal between Washington and Beijing last year allowed its inspectors to examine firms there after the US threatened to delist Chinese companies from US stock exchanges if China did not come into line.

“The days of China-based firms evading accountability are over,” PCAOB chair Erica Williams said. “The PCAOB will impose tough sanctions against anyone who violates PCAOB rules and standards, no matter where they are located.”