(Bloomberg) — The Securities and Exchange Commission's top compliance official, who led the agency's charge into regulating private-equity funds and chided their managers for charging improper expenses, is leaving next month.
Drew Bowden, 53, will return to the private sector, the SEC said in a statement Tuesday without specifying his employment plans. He has led the SEC's Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations since June 2013.
Bowden made waves last year when he unveiled scathing findings from a broad sweep of the private-equity industry, saying the agency had found improper fees or major compliance failures in more than half of the firms it inspected. Some firms including Blackstone Group LP are now disclosing fees that had largely been hidden prior to Bowden's May 2014 speech.
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Bowden was in the spotlight again last month after blogs accused him of pandering to the industry he had once criticized. At issue were remarks he made at a Stanford University event in March where he jokingly said he had urged his son to work in the private-equity industry, according to a video of his comments posted by the Naked Capitalism blog.
"I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Chair White, the Commission, and with such dedicated and talented colleagues," Bowden said in a statement. "The work they do is extremely important. Each day they come to work to protect investors and the integrity of our complex and adaptive capital markets."
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