SEC ousts head of accounting watchdog, puts rest of board on notice

WASHINGTON: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday said it had removed the head of the oversight board that sets standards for audits of public companies and planned to replace the rest of the board in due course.

The SEC said in a statement that it had voted to remove William Duhnke III as chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a role he has held since January 2018, effective Friday. The other four members of the board will stay on, but the SEC — which oversees the accounting watchdog — is soliciting resumes for those roles.

Duhnke’s ouster is a warning shot by the new SEC chair Gary Gensler, who took the helm at the markets regulator in April.