Audit Board’s Meeting Place Draws Questions

The U.S. accounting oversight board, established to clean up the industry, accepted free office space for a meeting from a law firm that represents accounting firms and corporations that have business before the panel.

Board members held a closed meeting with representatives of public companies at the Capitol Hill offices of Jones Day, whose clients include the four biggest accounting firms: KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young.

Charles Niemeier, the board’s acting chairman, said the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board didn’t hold the meeting at its new downtown Washington offices because the space can’t accommodate such gatherings.