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Chicago prof tells about white collar criminals, whistleblowers
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Some of her interview subjects embezzled millions or cooked the books to make their companies appear artificiality profitable. Others, despite pressure from supervisors, refused to go along with wrongdoing and instead reported the activity to authorities.
Kelly Richmond Pope, an associate professor in the School of Accountancy and Management and Information Systems at DePaul University in Chicago, spoke Friday at the 17th Annual Accounting and Finance Student/Practitioner Day in the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University.
Pope, a North Carolina native, has interviewed more than 50 white-collar felons, victims and whistle blowers, recording their versions of their experiences and compiling them in online videos.
She uses the stories the subjects tell as teaching tools.
“I’m not sure you can really teach ethics,” Pope said. “But you can show consequences.”
She’s interviewed two former chief financial officers of HealthSouth who were sent to federal prison for cooking the company’s books, and other accountants who went along with illegal activity because their bosses told them to.
But she’s also interviewed “courageous people in the accounting field” including the controller of a small company whose boss directed her to do something illegal, who instead directed auditors to the wrongdoing.
Pope has written to imprisoned investment adviser Bernie Madoff asking to interview him, but he hasn’t responded. Madoff pleaded guilty to federal felonies including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements, perjury, theft from an employee-benefit plan, and making false filings with the SEC.
She’d really like to interview professional racing cyclist Lance Armstrong. A whistle-blower lawsuit alleged that Armstrong and team managers defrauded the U.S. government when they accepted money from the U.S. Postal Service.
“There are so many components of the case — the group dynamics, teamwork, bullying, denial,” she said.
Pope sees similarities between Armstrong and a case of Dixon, Ill., comptroller and treasurer Rita Crundwell who embezzled $53 million from the city over 20 years.
Both gave money to charity and employed people in the community, she said. Armstrong’s team benefited from his success, Pope said.
“I’d love to be the Oprah Winfrey of business fraud,” she said.