A Tokyo court has found three former accountants who worked with suspended Japanese firm ChuoAoyama guilty of lying in a conspiracy with executives at its former audit client, cosmetics maker Kanebo.

Kuniaki Sato, 64, was sentenced 18 months in prison while Kazutoshi Kanda, 56, and Seiichiro Tokumi, 59, received one year in jail - all of these were suspended for three years.

ChuoAoyama, the former PwC representative firm in Japan has had its auditing license suspended for July and August as punishment for its involvement in the accounting scandal at Kanebo.

Presiding judge Harumitsu Mori said: ‘The crime significantly eroded the public trust in the auditing system and accountants. It is shameful that they have failed to realize the high professional morality as certified accountants and lost the true aim of auditing, which is to protect the profits of investors.'

PwC has set up a new firm in Japan after the suspension of ChuoAoyama.