SPSU Mock Fraud Trial

During April, IAG members Laurie Dyke and Michele Bruce teamed with Jim Hart of The Lightfoot Group to help Southern Polytechnical State University (SPSU) students prepare for a mock fraud trial. SPSU Professor Bill Beecken reports:

“[On April 28th, 2010], three volunteers from the Pickens County legal community (Attorneys John Capo and Scott Poole and Magistrate Judge Allen Wigington) participated in a mock fraud trial at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia. The 3-hour mock trial was the culmination of a multi-part term project for the senior-level class in Fraud Examination.  Under the guidance of their professor, Bill Beecken, a certified fraud examiner, two teams of students analyzed a complex $1.3 million fraud case; proposed and / or conducted witness interviews; prepared an examination report, schedules, and courtroom ready audio-visuals; and prepared for testimony as an expert witness with three members of the Georgia Society of CPAs, Fraud Group (Michele Bruce, Laurie Dyke, and Jim Hart) as well as with defense attorney John Capo and prosecutor Scott Poole.  To get ready for the project, Lew Brendle, a retired supervisory special agent, taught the students how to interview and interrogate witnesses.  At the trial one student from each team played an expert witness and another functioned as the attorney’s litigation support person queuing up audio-visuals.  The remaining students provided their attorneys with real-time analysis of the testimony of the opposing expert witness.  The students greatly benefited from the sacrifice of these volunteers – two have applied to become federal special agents, another two have applied to work as investigations specialists with the FDIC, and another two decided to pursue a masters degree in accounting and work as forensic accountants. We give thanks to all of the volunteers that made this mock trial such a success.”