Remember Longtop Finanical? That's the Hong Kong-based company that Deloitte kicked to the curb last May for a number of sketchy reasons that included the "the unlawful detention of DTT's audit files." We came to learn later that not only were the precious audit files taken hostage but that Deloitte auditors were thisclose to becoming hostages themeselves. The crack squad at the SEC got their noses away from high resolution porn long enough to catch a whiff of this and thought they'd better subpoena Deloitte Shanghai to see what's what. The firm balked, claiming that Chinese law prevented them from turning over the documents, which sounds reasonable enough, but a DC judge would like Deloitte Shanghai to explain this to her face.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson ruled today that D&T Shanghai must explain in court why it hasn’t complied with a subpoena issued in May seeking documents that the regulator claims are “critical” to its probe of possible fraud at Longtop, a financial software maker based in Hong Kong. Robinson ruled that the Shanghai-based company, through its U.S. lawyer, was aware of the SEC’s request for a “show cause” order and the agency wasn’t required to serve D&T Shanghai in China. […] The SEC issued a subpoena for documents it said may contain basic information necessary to determine whether there was a fraud, who was behind it and how it was conducted, according to the court filing.
See? SEC is just looking for some Chinese porn fraud. Not a big deal. Your cooperation is appreciated.
