IRS Citizen Academy Shows Another Side of Accounting

Earlier this academic year, Karrie Saboe, instructor of Accounting, hosted the IRS Citizen Academy to show students how working in the field of accounting is more than sitting behind a desk!

For years, IRS Criminal Investigation field offices have brought the Citizen Academy to college and university campuses nationwide. Classes participate in a simulation of a mock criminal investigation and get a firsthand look at what it’s like for IRS special agents to carry out an investigation, tracking illicit money from the crime to the criminal.

Students are “sworn in” as special agents and sharpen their forensic accounting skills by interviewing suspects, conducting surveillance and document analysis.

11 students divided into three groups – each group to solve a different case. Lunch was provided and each group retreated to their meeting room to continue working over lunch.

Agents came from Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and North Carolina. Chana Boller (CofC alumna) and Brian Thomas from the Charlotte office were guest speakers at a Beta Alpha Psi meeting the evening before.