CPA Challenges US Audit Board Enforcement, ‘Taxation’ Powers (1)

An unnamed CPA who worked for a Colombian accounting firm is suing the US audit regulator, challenging its expansive investigative powers and its funding authority.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s “secret disciplinary proceedings” are unlawful and amount to an “unconstitutional prosecution” of the former auditor, who worked for the Colombia affiliate of an unnamed international accounting network, according to the complaint filed Thursday in a Dallas federal court.

The board is “laser focused” on protecting investors, a PCAOB spokesperson said, declining to comment further on the legal challenge.

Congress established the audit regulator in 2002 as it sought to ...