Tag: PCAOB Chair William Duhnke III

WSJ reports that SEC is investigating potential violations by former PCAOB Chair Duhnke

On June 4, the SEC announced that it had “removed” William D. Duhnke III from the PCAOB and designated Duane M. DesParte to serve as Acting Chair. Duhnke had been serving as Chair since January 2018.  In the press release,  SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the “PCAOB has an opportunity to live up to Congress’s vision in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act….I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners, Acting Chair DesParte, and the staff of the PCAOB to set it on a path to better protect investors by ensuring that public company audits are informative, accurate, and independent.” (See this PubCo post.) In response to a question about Duhnke’s removal at the WSJ’s CFO Network Summit earlier this month, Gensler said only that the PCAOB plays an integral role in the audit process and that he didn’t think that it was living up to its potential as a standard-setter or in its enforcement role. (See this PubCo post.)  According to Bloomberg, Representative Patrick McHenry, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, has said he’s opening an investigation into the firing of Duhnke. The WSJ is now reporting exclusively that the SEC is conducting an investigation into whether Duhnke “violated any rules in his handling of internal complaints” at the PCAOB.