SEC Says Big Four Audit China-Affiliates Blocked Probe

``The auditors claim Chinese law prevents them from assenting to the SEC's demands, hindering U.S. efforts to probe allegations of fraud that have wiped 61 percent from a gauge of Chinese and Hong Kong stocks traded in North America since January 2011. Failure to reach an agreement on cross-border access to records may prompt U.S. regulators to seek to deregister the firms, said Paul Gillis, professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management.''