Auditor settles SEC allegations

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Thursday, July 18, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

NEW YORK -- PricewaterhouseCoopers, the nation's largest accounting firm, has agreed to pay $5 million to settle allegations from federal regulators that it broke rules meant ensure that auditors remain independent from the companies whose books they oversee.

PricewaterhouseCoopers neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement that the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday. The firm agreed to be censured for engaging in improper professional conduct and to make changes in how it operates, the agency said. The violations were related to PricewaterhouseCoopers's approval of clients' accounting treatment of costs that included PricewaterhouseCoopers's consulting fees.