Training students to be accounting cops.

• Author: Nellen, Annette

Financial crimes are grabbing headlines internationally; interested accounting graduates now have an opportunity to prevent and fight those crimes in various government agencies. For example, President Bush announced the creation of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the Securities and Exchange Commission vowed to step up enforcement and the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) opened 500 new special agent positions in March 2004. The Federal government is positioning itself as a major and growing employer of accountants. In particular, the agents sought by some of these agencies (and the CID in particular) need strong accounting backgrounds (at least 15 accounting hours, plus additional business-related courses), strong communication skills and a willingness to undergo criminal justice training.

To interest students in this type of work, IRS agents have spoken to on campus accounting societies in general terms, censoring the confidential stories that students would probably find most exciting about IRS employment. Consequently, students did not leave with a real sense of an agent's work. In response, the CID developed a creative new event for on-campus administration, during which students of junior standing or above can actually sample the work of financial cops. Students learn that choosing this type of career requires both patience for tedious book work and tolerance for unexpected risks.

Hands-on Crime-Solving

IRS agents, along with faculty and staff, lead interested groups of students through scenarios that can be described as "financial-crime snack theater": although each act is planned overall, the students are left to deal with ad-libbing and some built-in surprises. Created and tested about a year ago by the CID in Michigan, this event took place at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and was the first of its kind held outside of Michigan. About 24 students from roughly seven different majors participated. After a brief introduction and instructions, the students broke up into four multidisciplinary groups of about six students each. Each group solved a different hypothetical crime with financial implications. Typical crimes include drug dealing, identity, theft, money laundering and tax evasion. To solve each case, the students used many different techniques and skills, such as interviewing witnesses, legally searching and seizing, "dumpster-diving" for evidence, staking out, tailing suspects and working...