Industry Critic Tapped by Accounting Watchdog
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Douglas Carmichael, an academic who has accused the accounting industry of having lax standards, on Thursday was named chief auditor of the new agency that will oversee the industry.
Carmichael, 61, an accounting professor at Baruch College in New York, will play a key role as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board begins to set audit standards this year.
Carmichael, who heads Baruch’s Center for Financial Integrity, said he viewed the job as an opportunity to address shortcomings in the accounting field.
“I’ve seen things happen in the auditing profession that have disturbed me, that I thought went in the wrong direction,” he said, “and the chance to put things in the right direction was the appeal of the job.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday chose William J. McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to chair the accounting oversight board.
The agency was created by Congress in July in the wake of corporate financial scandals that tainted the accounting industry.
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