Company: ABTS
Filing Date: 2025-12-02
Form Type: F-3/A
Source: 0001493152-25-025631
Chunk: 38

Company: Abits Group Inc
Filing Date: 2025-12-02
Form: F-3/A
Chunk 38
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 firms issue audit opinions on the financial statements included in the annual reports filed by U.S. public companies with the SEC. Auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States are required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB.

In recent years, U.S. regulatory authorities have expressed their concerns about challenges in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. As part of a continued regulatory focus in the U.S. on access to audit and other information protected by national law, in particular China’s, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in the U.S. Congress that would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which the PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. On May 20, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the HFCAA. The HFCAA was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 2, 2020. On December 18, 2020, the HFCAA was signed into law by the U.S. President. The HFCAA requires the SEC to prohibit foreign companies from listing securities on U.S. securities exchanges if a company retains a foreign accounting firm that cannot be inspected by the PCAOB for three consecutive years, beginning in 2021. On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the HFCAA.

On June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the AHFCAA and on December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act was signed into law by the U.S. President, which contained a provision identical to the AHFCAA and amended the HFCAA by requiring the SEC to prohibit an issuer’s securities from trading on any U.S. stock exchanges if its auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections for two consecutive years instead of three, thus reducing the time before an issuer’s securities may be prohibited from trading or delisted.

On September 22, 2021, the PCAOB adopted a final rule implementing the HFCAA, which provides a framework for the PCAOB to use when determining, as contemplated under the HFCAA, whether the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms located in a foreign jurisdiction because of a position taken by one or more authorities in that jurisdiction. On December 2, 2021, the