The Student Fraud Conference is aimed at giving university business students a look at the inner workings of a fraud investigation through the eyes of an IRS Special Agent and presenting forensic career opportunities to students with an accounting degree. The conference allows them to solve hypothetical financial crimes.
The first conference was held in March and was a huge success. This time, the program has been expanded and will include students from Albion, Aquinas and Calvin colleges.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for accounting students to use their skills in ways they haven't contemplated. Accounting skills are the foundation of a follow-the-money approach to investigating crimes," said David Cannon, assistant professor of accounting in Grand Valley's Seidman College of Business.
Working in teams of five, 40 accounting students will set out to investigate and solve cases in four hours that typically take the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigators 18 months to unravel. Some of the hypothetical investigations involve business owners skimming funds from their company, a bar owner who keeps two sets of books, a multi-filer tax scheme and a drug trafficker.
Each group of students works with an experienced IRS special agent or retiree who offers coaching and tips during the exercise. The investigations may start with an anonymous informant, a meeting with local law enforcement or a bag of garbage. Students select their next step in gathering evidence -- usually taking them to potential witnesses, played by IRS special agents, certified public accountants and other volunteers. The students use the tools available to federal law enforcement officers, including use of surveillance, subpoena, and search warrants. At the end of their scenarios, the students meet as a group to discuss their investigation, while receiving an evaluation from their coaches.
The program was developed by the Detroit office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and has been put on at colleges around Michigan over the last two-and-a-half years. This time, the program is available nationally to all IRS Criminal Investigative Division offices in the country. There will be agents from Los Angeles and Ohio participating in the event in order to bring the program to their offices.
The IRS's Criminal Investigation Division in Michigan, the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants and Grand Valley's Seidman College of Business are sponsoring the conference.
MEDIA NOTE: The conference will Friday, November 4, in the DeVos Center on Grand Valley's Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Media coverage of the conference is welcomed and encouraged. The simulation starts on Friday at noon in room 136E, and at 1 p.m., most of the students will be located in area 125C. Media are welcome anytime from noon until 5 p.m. Stephen Moore from the IRS Criminal Investigation's Public Information Office will escort the media during the exercise. His pager number is: (888) 226-2380. Students and IRS officials will be available for interviews. IRS Criminal Investigation does not allow certain agents to be photographed.
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