Former SEC Chair Harvey Pitt dead at 78 - Bloomberg Law

Adds background on Pitt's SEC tenure

May 31 (Reuters) - Harvey Pitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has died at the age of 78, Bloomberg Law reported on Wednesday.

Pitt died on May 30, the report said, citing Jane Cobb, executive director of the SEC Historical Society.

Pitt headed the SEC from 2001 to 2003, a tenure that was mired by the high-profile accounting scandal at Enron Corp. He also managed the closing of the markets after the 9/11 attacks.

His decision to appoint former FBI head William Webster to run the then-newly created SEC's accounting watchdog Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in 2002 generated huge controversy, which ultimately led to both him and Webster to resign from their posts.

After SEC, Pitt moved to head business consulting firm Kalorama Partners.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))

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