PCAOB

The commission appointed a CPA who has served as director of the board's Division of Registration and Inspections.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board sanctioned a Deloitte member firm in South America for violating quality control standards.

The board levied a $2 million penalty against the Chicago-based Top 10 Firm for violating its auditing rules and standards, and sanctioned two of its audit partners.

The board issued a proposal to amend its rule for an individual auditor's or firm's contributory liability for knowingly or recklessly contributing to violations.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board imposed a $30,000 civil penalty against K.R. Margetson and its sole partner for quality control violations and revoked his firm's registration for a year.

These are the first sanctions ever against a firm over independence violations because it's a member of an alliance where another firm did work for the same client.

It also imposed $150,000 in fines, for failures of independence and professional skepticism, and for not cooperating with a board investigation.

The suggestions in board chair Erica William's recent Wall Street Journal op-ed could have troubling ramifications for auditors and their clients.

The board continues its aggressive approach to oversight, announcing several hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties on several auditors in a single week.

The board saw high rates of deficiency last year, with little to no improvement over prior years.