IRS Citizen Academy returns to Trine

Members of the IRS Special (Criminal) Investigations Unit returned to Trine University’s campus on Friday, Sept. 13, with most of them being “arrested.”

The Ketner School of Business, in coordination with the criminal justice and forensic science majors, hosted the second annual IRS Citizen Academy Day.

The Academy provides a daylong simulation of a criminal investigation, giving students a firsthand look at what it's like to carry one out.

Two Trine alumni who are IRS Special Agents have facilitated the event both years: Ben Badger, a 2015 management and finance graduate, and Amy Cain, a 2002 accounting graduate.

Variety of majors

This year's event involved 23 students, with 11 majoring in accounting, eight in criminal justice and four in forensic science.

Approximately a dozen IRS agents played criminals.

Avery Boyce, an accounting major from Coldwater, Michigan, was part of last year’s Citizen Academy and decided to participate again because “it was a great learning experience that was lots of fun.”

“I've been looking into going into a career in forensic accounting, and the program is a good way to see what someone in that field does and actually do it yourself,” she said.

Paige Aselage, an accounting and finance major from Huntertown, Indiana, said she wanted to get a different look at careers that fall within the accounting field.

“I wanted to get to experience something outside of the classroom that would educate me on a real-world job,” she said.

The investigation

The students were split into three groups and given clues in the form of pulling tax returns from the IRS database with questionable deductions and/or credits. A “tip” was given to Aselage’s group by one of the IRS employees who posed as a taxpayer in the exercise and was nervous about the high amount of the refund.

“We then decided to do surveillance on this taxpayer,” Aselage said. “We followed him around to see what he was doing and then decided that we needed to send in an undercover agent to get their taxes done. We watched as the tax preparer admitted he was going to inflate some of the numbers so he would get a better return. We got the tax return back and he had significantly inflated the numbers to give our agent a better return.”

The other groups also performed surveillance activities in and around Best Hall.

“We did surveillance on our suspect throughout the day to see if we could catch more critical information for our case,” Boyce recalled. “At around the halfway point, we took a break for lunch and talked to the other teams, and we declared that there was some sort of deal between all three of our suspects and they were working together. After lunch we split back up into our groups and used our new information to complete our case.”

In addition to one criminal preparing inflated returns, the teams determined suspects were stealing identities to file bogus tax returns.

The students presented their evidence to a judge, played by an IRS agent, and received arrest and search warrants.

Maggie Buza, a forensic science major from Plymouth, Indiana, said she learned the importance of being detailed and keeping a thorough log of activities.

“One small slip-up can make or break a case in court!” she said.

“We then arrested [our suspect] and searched his house, where we found more evidence,” said Boyce. “After this we all got back together as one group and debriefed about our cases and how they were connected.”

Boyce said her favorite part of the day was arresting the suspect. The students made arrests while wearing IRS vests, using handcuffs, communicating on radios and using fake weapons. 

“There was a feeling of satisfaction knowing that we caught our guy and there was definitely some adrenaline running through my body seeing him get handcuffs put on, even though it was a mock arrest,” she said.

Becoming a special agent

Al Beatty, assistant professor in Trine’s Ketner School of Business, said several students have enrolled in multiple majors as a result of the program.

“The IRS is seeking graduates with accounting knowledge and law enforcement/investigation knowledge,” he said.

One student will have the opportunity to work in the IRS Co-Op program for a year, Beatty said, with the hope that they will become a full-time IRS Special agent after graduation.

Buza said the Academy helped her learn how important chain of custody and written record is when handling evidence. Boyce said experience allowed her to see all the pieces that go into an investigation, such as research, surveillance and interviewing.

“If I do end up pursuing a career in forensic accounting, this experience will help me to know what discrepancies to look for and some common types of tax and accounting crimes,” she said.

Aselage said she enjoyed simulating what agents do in their work.

“Many of the agents told us that what we were doing was very accurate to what they do,” she said. “Being able to get experience is not something I would have ever expected to get to do in my life, especially as an accounting major.”

“I learned that being an accounting major may not be as boring as some people may think. I also learned just how much work can go into large cases.”