The Chinese units of the Big Four global auditing firms agreed to pay $2m for failing to produce documents for companies being investigated for accounting fraud, sparing the auditors from a six-month work ban imposed by a US judge.

The settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission resolves a long-running dispute in which the auditors claimed they were caught between US and Chinese rules in the request for documents for more than 100 Chinese companies listed in the US.

The settlement involves Ernst & Young Hua Ming, KPMG Huazhen, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and PwC Zhong Tian.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e1d13df2-ae1e-11e4-8d51-00144feab7de.html#axzz3R8KNP0iv