PwC office in Moscow was raided in early March on the grounds of a suspected $9 million tax evasion in Russia which the company denied. It had appealed the seizure of the documents and the City Court also ordered a retrial of the case by the same Tverskoi Court, which sanctioned the confiscation March 28.
"The documents were confiscated March 9 and could be an auditor's secret, so the court ruling sought to correct the mistake," Olga Kozyreva, the auditor's lawyer, said Monday.
Prosecutors said the Tverskoi court's decision had rightfully sanctioned the confiscation because the documents were vitally important for the investigation.
PwC had its license extended for five years by the Russian Finance Ministry in mid-April.
Prosecutors have also said they were investigating if PwC had helped its former client, the now bankrupt Yukos [RTS: YUKO] oil company, to cover up its tax schemes and whether it had drawn up two different audit reports for the purpose in 2002-04. PwC said the prosecutors misinterpreted an auditor's role and functions.
PwC clients in Russia include the Central Bank and Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy System [RTS: EESR]. The company won a tender in April to audit Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP], its client since 1995. The AvtoVAZ auto-maker refused to prolong its contract with PwC.
