Bush Appointee to SEC Announces His Departure

WASHINGTON -- Paul S. Atkins, one of three Republican members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said on Monday that he would leave the agency after his term ends next month, The Associated Press reported.

Atkins, widely considered the most conservative member of the SEC in recent years with the strongest free-market bent, was appointed by President Bush in July 2002 at the height of a series of corporate accounting scandals. At the time, he was a partner at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and had worked at the SEC on the staffs of two former chairmen, the AP reported.

Atkins, 50, plans to remain as commissioner until a successor is installed, the SEC said in a news release on Monday. It did not mention Atkins’s career plans. While his term expires on June 5, he could have remained for as many as 18 months more, the AP reported.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 5/6/08