Documentarian and White-Collar Crime & Ethics Expert
Kelly Richmond Pope: Biography at a Glance
- Kelly Richmond Pope is a forensic accountant and professor in the School of Accountancy and MIS at DePaul University.
- Dr. Pope uses the most innovative and cutting-edge outlets in edutainment to teach forensic accounting, managerial accounting, financial accounting, and ethical leadership.
- Her book, Fool Me Once, offers a look at the perpetrators, victims, and whistleblowers behind financial crimes, while also encouraging us to look at our own behaviors and motivations in the hope of protecting ourselves and our companies.
- Her first feature-length film, All the Queen’s Horses, detailed the largest case of municipal fraud in American history and was named HBO’s “Best Documentary of the Year.”
- Pope is the co-founder of Rich Little Girls, Inc., an edutainment curriculum development company and co-creator of Red Flag Mania, an immersive learning experience for solving real-life cases of fraud.
- She was selected by TED Ed to develop a teaching lesson on “How People Rationalize Fraud” and has given a TED Talk on “How Whistle-blowers Shape History.”
- Pope is a popular keynote speaker and international lecturer, frequently advising firms about their compliance programs and training.
Videos
Biography
Forensic accountant and professor Kelly Richmond Pope has dedicated her career to confronting the challenges of white-collar crime. A professor in the School of Accountancy and MIS at DePaul University, Dr. Pope uses the most innovative and cutting-edge outlets in edutainment to teach forensic accounting, managerial accounting, financial accounting, and ethical leadership. Her book, Fool Me Once, offers a look at the perpetrators, victims, and whistleblowers behind financial crimes, while also encouraging us to look at our own behaviors and motivations in the hope of protecting ourselves and our companies. She is also currently a co-host of the podcast True Crime with Kathy Lake and Kelly Pope on WGN Radio.
A popular keynote speaker and international lecturer, Dr. Pope is a frequent adviser to firms about their compliance programs and training. She speaks regularly to regulators, including the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, companies such as GE, Kraft Heinz, Allstate, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, and a number of trade associations, including the AICPA and the Government Finance Officers Association. Using her research in forensic accounting and white-collar crime, Dr. Pope brings up-to-date facts about how good employees rationalize bad decisions, the importance of internal whistleblowing, and the value of ethical leadership. Her first feature-length film, All the Queen’s Horses, reveals how the largest municipal fraud perpetrator in the nation's history embezzled upwards of $53 million. Named HBO’s “Best Documentary of the Year,” the film was featured at a number of film festivals and was a 2014 finalist for a Tribeca Film Institute grant. During its debut week, the film was the #1 documentary on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Direct TV. Dr. Pope’s first documentary, Crossing the Line: Ordinary People Committing Extraordinary Crimes, has won numerous national education innovation awards and is used in colleges, universities, and corporations throughout the country.
Dr. Pope is the co-founder of Rich Little Girls, Inc., an edutainment curriculum development company. Through DePaul, she co-created Red Flag Mania, an immersive learning experience for students, employees, and business owners to solve real-life cases of fraud. With the online learning platform Course Hero, Dr. Pope offers her signature workshop on the power of edutainment, “Using an Edutainment Curriculum to Revamp Your Accounting Course.”
Her research has been published in Behavioral Research in Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Ethics, The CPA Journal, and WebCPA. She is a co-author of The A.B.C.’s of Behavioral Forensics: Using Psychology to Prevent, Detect and Deter Fraud. Dr. Pope is a frequent contributor to Forbes.com and has published articles in The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and PBS Need to Know.
She received her doctorate in accounting from Virginia Tech and is a licensed certified public accountant. While working in the forensic accounting practice at KPMG, LLP, Dr. Pope focused on anti-money laundering engagements, insurance fraud investigations, and fraud risk management projects. Dr. Pope was selected by the TEDEd team to develop a teaching lesson on “How People Rationalize Fraud,” while her TED Talk “How Whistle-blowers Shape History” tackles the whistleblower dilemma and the need for whistleblowers in fraud discovery.
She is a member of numerous boards, including the Economic Club of Chicago and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Dr. Pope is also a faculty advisor to the DePaul National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) student chapter and a mentor-editor for The OpEd Project.
Topics
Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry
Each year, consumers, small businesses, governments, and corporations lose trillions of dollars to financial crime. Have you ever wondered why Bernie Madoff thought he could brazenly steal his clients' money? Or why investors were so easily duped by Elizabeth Holmes?
In this conversation, Forensic Accounting Expert and Documentarian Kelly Richmond Pope offers a riveting look at the perpetrators, victims, and whistleblowers behind financial crimes. She uncovers what makes perps tick, victims so gullible, and whistleblowers so morally righteous, while also encouraging us to look at our own behaviors and motivations in the hope of protecting ourselves and our companies. Filled with fascinating stories and insightful analysis, this talk will open your eyes and challenge your thinking while inspiring you to question your own preconceived notions about fraud. You'll leave with a better understanding of—and perhaps even compassion for—perpetrators, a renewed connection to victims, and an appreciation for those who blow the whistle.
Ethical Leadership: Improving Business, Saving Democracy
Ethics is under attack. Headline after headline cites conflicts of interests of high-profile, powerful figures. From the President and a number of elected officials to numerous CEOs, and the very social media platforms we use, the biggest forces shaping our world are falling short of their responsibility to uphold ethics and create a culture of values and principles.
According to Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope, Forensic Accountant and Professor of accounting and ethical leadership, ethics should be a nonpartisan value that we all share. Yet this current political climate does not value ethics or principles, but privilege, power, and money. Defining ethical leadership as established personal and organizational values, realizing a breach of values, and confronting misaligned behavior, a democracy without ethics is destined to fail.
In this speech, Dr. Pope explains how establishing ethics in corporations and organizations will lead to a wider ethical environment, but it must come from the top. As ethical leaders put their values before the bottom line, their teams will more likely be loyal, dedicated, and ethical in turn. Dr. Pope also explores how, regardless of your status, raising the “ethical bar” for yourself will also raise it for your team, your organization, and even your family.
Rationalizing Fraud: How Ordinary People Commit Extraordinary Crimes
From embezzlement and pyramid schemes to false insurance claims, expense reports, tax reports, and overbilling, fraud is committed by millions of people at all levels of organizations. Each year, businesses, governments, and non-profits lose over $3.7 trillion to fraud.
Kelly Richmond Pope is a forensic accountant and filmmaker who, for over twenty years, has been studying why ordinary people commit extraordinary crimes. Having interviewed a number of convicted white-collar felons, Pope shares their first-hand accounts, from the alleged business or personal pressures that led to their crimes to their convictions and ultimate time in prison. In this speech, Dr. Pope will outline the three major reasons for fraud:
- Pressure — such as personal debts or earning quotas
- Opportunity — many people have access to tools to commit and conceal fraud
- Rationalization — feelings of entitlement, “borrowing,” or that it is a victim-less crime
She will then explain the many scales at which fraud is committed, such as Bernie Madoff, the biggest fraudster of all time, with $64 billion misappropriated, or Rita Crundwell, the largest municipal fraudster and subject of Pope’s award-winning documentary, All the Queen’s Horses, or the least-likely, most inconspicuous office employee that will never be outed and never prosecuted. As leaders, educators, volunteers, and voters are all susceptible to fraud, Dr. Pope will detail how to recognize it, how to curb it, and how to confront it, on a personal and professional level.
The Whistleblower Dilemma: Justice Or Loyalty?
Despite whistleblowers uncovering some of the biggest controversies and white-collar crimes of the day, including WikiLeaks, Theranos, the college admissions scandal, and the Boeing 737 scandal, there remains a stigma around whistleblowing that keeps many silenced and much crucial (and potentially life-saving) information concealed. With words such as “rat” “tattletale,” and “snitch” used to describe anyone who leaks information, it is no wonder that whistleblowers are widely disdained and shamed into silence.
Forensic Accountant and Educator Kelly Richmond Pope has dedicated her career to studying and understanding white-collar crime. She has traveled around the country interviewing felons, whistleblowers, and victims of fraud in hopes of changing the conversation and connotation around whistleblowing. According to Dr. Pope, most whistleblowers are not disgruntled employees looking for attention, money, or even revenge, but are largely honest, justice-seeking individuals looking to reveal criminal behavior.
In this topical discussion, Dr. Pope draws from current and ongoing cases to examine the ethical need for whistleblowers, and the dilemma many of us will inevitably face between loyalty and justice. Despite the toll whistleblowing can take on careers, relationships, and even personal safety, Pope also reveals how most admit the relief they felt after revealing the truth.
