U.S. federal regulators tried to persuade a judge on Monday to sanction the Chinese arms of the world's top five accounting firms, saying their refusal to hand over audit work papers has hindered investigations into fraud at U.S.-listed Chinese firms. In testimony during a hearing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an SEC official alleged that Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLP's failure to turn over audit records has stalled a three-year-old probe into financial fraud at a large solar power company. "We've had significant delays," said Laura Josephs, an SEC assistant enforcement director. She added that Deloitte was "continuing to issue audit opinions" both for that company and others, even while it failed to comply with the SEC's request. In December, the SEC charged the Chinese affiliates of Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BDO and Ernst & Young with securities violations. The case, which kicked off Monday in an administrative trial expected to last several
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