CHAPTER 2
Interpersonal Phase
In this chapter, the “people and money”1 principle is deployed through the dictum “If you understand the people, the money part is easy.” That is because money-related deception (through journal entries, financial statement manipulation, corruption, and so forth) cannot be effected without people involvement. Put another way, “Nothing happens until someone does something.” The principle also frames the sequence of investigation and remedies unbalanced forensic operator people skill sets. Forensic assignments should begin with, continue with, and end with interviews, interrogation, research, and analysis into the behavior of the people (directly and indirectly) involved. The people starting point focuses and accelerates all subsequent activities and leads to successful, efficient, and effective forensic assignments.
Unfortunately, forensic operators often possess an unbalanced people and money skill set since their knowledge, education, experience, training, and familiarity tend to emphasize one skill set at the expense of the other. For example, law enforcement specialists are often heavily skilled in the people component of the principle, resulting from their training in interviews and interrogation. However, they invariably lack commensurate skill depth in the money component of the principle. Conversely, forensic operators with deep money skills typically lack commensurate abilities to interview, interrogate, or deploy behavior detection skills ...
