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IRS criminal investigators host workshop with Stevenson students
By Sarah Cormier, C & G Staff Writer
Stephen Moore is a special agent for a small and relatively unknown section of
the Internal Revenue Service - the Criminal Investigation Division.
The IRS's Criminal Investigation Division has field offices all over the
country, including Michigan. According to Moore, who acts as a public
information officer for the Detroit Field Office, there are 65 agents in the
state that investigate crimes connected with tax evasion and money laundering.
"We are the only agency that can enforce federal tax statues," said Maurice
Aouate, the Detroit Field Office's special agent in charge. "We basically
investigate, put a case together and give the information to the state attorney
general's office who prosecute the case for us."
Since the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division is one of the agency's
smallest, few people know about it. That is until last week, when Moore, Aouate
and several other special agents came to Stevenson High School to teach
business students all about the bureau.
On June 6, the students participated in the Adrian Jr. Project, which was
developed by Moore just a short time ago. The workshop allows students to
launch into a full two-and-a-half hour hypothetical financial crime
investigation in which they examine a local business owner who is reportedly
skimming money from Cheaters Ice Cream Parlor. During the workshop, students
break into groups that are headed by a real IRS special agent. They are then
charged with looking into leads, finding important documents and finally
convincing their coach that they have enough evidence to convict the business
owner.
Moore first developed the Adrian Project in 2002. The workshop started out at
Adrian College as a six-hour course for students on how the IRS Criminal
Investigation division works.
"I sat down and thought, if I was a student and wanted to learn about my job,
how would I do it?" Moore said.
The project gained national recognition this year, he said. After the Adrian
Project became a huge success, Moore decided to develop something for students
at the high school level, hence, the Adrian Jr. Project. Although students only
investigate a crime for two and a half hours and the scenario given to them is
different than on the college level, Moore said the workshop is still very
valuable. It will be going national next year.
"This allows students at the college and high school level to get a chance to
learn about forensic accounting," Moore said.
Aouate said that the Adrian projects also allow the agency to recruit potential
employees.
"It helps us get the word out and let them know what we do and get more people
interested in what we do," he said.
Moore agrees.
"It really helps us draw attention to this field," he said.
Janet Gendelman, a teacher at Stevenson who set up the workshop for her second
year business students, said that as soon as she heard Moore talk at a
conference, she knew that it would be a good idea to for him to come to the
school.
"I knew it would be great for the students to see how what we learn in the
classroom can be used in the real world," she said.
You can reach Sarah Cormier at scormier@candgnews.com
original article
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