On January 19, 2023, an accountant formerly associated with a registered public accounting firm filed a complaint in the Northern District of Texas seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to the PCAOB’s disciplinary proceedings against him.

The plaintiff is an accountant who previously worked at a registered firm in the Republic of Colombia. The firm is a member of an international network of firms, the U.S.-based member of which is based in Texas. In 2015, Plaintiff worked on a team that performed component audit procedures relating to an audit client that was a publicly-traded company. Those audit procedures were performed to assist another member firm, which was the principal auditor of the company’s financial statements. In December 2022, the Board instituted formal disciplinary proceedings against the accountant, alleging that he altered or instructed others to alter audit workpapers and interfered with the Board’s investigation when he denied to the staff and others that he engaged in misconduct, according to the complaint.

Seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, the complaint alleges that: (1) the Board’s funding violates the Appropriations, Taxing, and Spending Clauses of the Constitution; (2) the Board exercises executive branch powers without Executive Branch supervision in violation of Article II; (3) hearing officers are inferior officers that have not been properly appointed under the Appointments Clause, and are granted multiple layers of protection from removal by the President in violation of Article II; and (4) disciplinary proceedings are biased and unfair in violation of the Due Process Clause, and deprive accountants of the right to a jury trial in violation of the Seventh Amendment.

The matter is John Doe v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, No. 3:23-cv-00149 (N.D. Tex. Jan. 19, 2023). The plaintiff is represented by Russell Ryan and Casey Norman of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, Ian Roffman and Melanie Woodward of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP and Katherine Addleman and Ronald Breaux of Haynes and Boone, LLP. A copy of the complaint is attached.