Longtime PCAOB official to lead the audit watchdog, US SEC says

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By Chris Prentice

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has tapped a longtime official of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to lead the audit watchdog, after the agency’s head pushed out its Democratic chief last week. 

George Botic, a certified public accountant who has been a PCAOB board member since October 2023, will on Wednesday become the acting chair of the PCAOB, the SEC said in a statement late on Monday. Congress formed the nonprofit in 2002 in response to a series of high-profile accounting scandals and auditing failures.

Botic said in the SEC’s statement that he was honored to work with the securities regulator, which oversees the board, and PCAOB staff to meet its mission.

The SEC’s chairman last week asked for the resignation of Erica Williams, who had been leading the PCAOB since January 2022. 

Botic has worked at the PCAOB for over two decades, in a variety of roles, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The change in leadership has been expected since Republicans took power in Washington earlier this year. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has been a vocal critic of the PCAOB in the past, and Republican lawmakers earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to effectively eliminate the group.

The outgoing chair told Reuters she urged the incoming leadership to protect the watchdog’s work.

“Now is not the time to pull back from the PCAOB,” Erica Williams told Reuters in an interview last week.

“History tells us that in times when the economy is tight, when there is volatility, that’s when people cook the books. There is an increased risk of fraud.”

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )