| Course | ACC 692 Interview Techniques/Legal Aspects of Fraud |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 8 |
| Paper type | graduate assignment documenting a fraud interview in a memorandum and a signed statement |
| Length | About 1,020 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | MS Accounting |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for ACC 692 Module 8
Memorandum of Interview and Signed Statement: Excavating Contractor
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
ACC 692: Interview Techniques/Legal Aspects of Fraud
Module Eight Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Memorandum of Interview and Signed Statement: Excavating Contractor
Introduction
On March 18, 2025, the owner of a local excavating company was interviewed about diesel and tires bought from the county highway department's fleet supervisor. The interview was voluntary, coordinated with the district attorney and attended by a county detective. This paper sets out the principles followed in documenting it and presents the two resulting documents: the memorandum of interview and the signed statement the contractor provided.
Principles of Interview Documentation
Five principles guided the documentation. First, the memorandum was written the same day from contemporaneous notes, while memory was fresh. Second, it records facts and the interviewee's words, not the examiner's conclusions, so that a reader can form an independent judgment. Third, each interview has its own memorandum, which prevents information from one witness from appearing to come from another. Fourth, key admissions are quoted exactly. Fifth, documents received are listed and numbered. Kranacher and Riley (2019) treat these as basic requirements, since an interview memorandum may be read years later by a prosecutor, a defense lawyer or a jury.
The interview was also audio recorded with the contractor's consent. Kassin et al. (2010) recommend recording entire interviews to create an objective record and deter coercion, and Kassin et al. (2014) found in an experiment that interrogators who knew they were being recorded used fewer pressuring tactics. The recording supports, but does not replace, the written memorandum.
Memorandum of Interview
Heading
Interviewee: owner of an excavating company based in the county. Date and time: March 18, 2025, 9:05 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Place: conference room B, county administration building. Present: the forensic examiner (questioning), a county detective (notes) and the interviewee. Recording: audio, with consent stated on the recording at 9:06 a.m.
Warnings and Voluntariness
At the outset the examiner stated that the interview concerned fuel and tire records at the highway department, that the interviewee was not under arrest, was free to leave at any time and could consult a lawyer before or during the interview. The interviewee said he understood and wished to continue.
Account
The interviewee stated that he has operated his company for fourteen years and runs four excavators and a 3,000-gallon fuel tanker. In December 2022 the fleet supervisor, whom he knew from a youth hockey league, told him the county had surplus diesel it needed to move before a tank inspection and offered it at $1.90 a gallon. The interviewee said diesel was then about $4.50 a gallon retail. He collected fuel on eleven occasions between December 2022 and February 2025, always after 10 p.m., at the supervisor's direction, and estimated the total at about 33,000 gallons. He paid cash to the supervisor each time, roughly $62,700 in total. He also bought about 240 truck tires over the same period at $90 each, about $21,600 in total, collected on the same nights. He received no invoices or receipts. He said he stored the fuel in his company's above-ground tank at its equipment yard and used it in his excavators on private jobs, and that he resold none of it. He said most of the tires went on two dump trucks he leased to another contractor.
Asked why he believed the fuel was surplus, he said that was what he was told. Asked whether anything made him doubt it, he said: "The night pickups bothered me. I figured it wasn't exactly surplus, but he said the county wanted it gone quiet." He said he did not ask anyone else at the county about the arrangement.
Documents Received
Exhibit 1: the interviewee's handwritten notebook listing dates and gallons for eleven pickups. Exhibit 2: fuel consumption logs for his four excavators, 2022 to 2025.
Conclusion of Interview
The interview ended at 10:40 a.m. The interviewee agreed to provide a written statement, which was prepared from his account, reviewed by him and signed at 11:15 a.m.
Signed Statement
I, the owner of an excavating company in this county, make this statement of my own free will. No threats or promises have been made to me.
In December 2022 the county's fleet supervisor offered to sell me diesel he said the county needed to get rid of. I agreed to pay $1.90 a gallon. Between December 2022 and February 2025 I picked up fuel eleven times with my tanker at the county yard, always after 10 at night, because that is when he told me to come. I think I got about 33,000 gallons in total. I paid him in cash each time. I also bought about 240 used truck tires from him for $90 each and picked them up on the same nights. I never got a receipt.
The night pickups bothered me. I figured it wasn't exactly surplus, but he said the county wanted it gone quiet, and I did not ask anyone else. I have given the investigators my notebook with the dates and amounts.
I have read this statement, which is two pages long. I have been given the chance to make corrections and have initialed each page. It is true to the best of my knowledge.
Notes on Defensibility
The memorandum records the voluntariness warnings because, without them, the defense could argue the contractor believed he was required to answer. It quotes the key admission rather than summarizing it as an admission of knowledge, which is the legal conclusion the district attorney must reach. It lists the two exhibits by number so that the notebook can be matched later with the pump controller's override log, and it records the start and end times, which together with the recording show that the interview was not prolonged. The statement uses his words, including "gone quiet," which no investigator would have written, and he initialed each page and the one correction he made, changing twelve pickups to eleven.
Conclusion
The memorandum and statement give a precise, neutral record of an interview that supports both the receiving stolen property analysis and the case against the supervisor. Written promptly, in the witness's words and with every warning and exhibit noted, they will hold up when read by people who were not in the room.
References
Kassin, S. M., Drizin, S. A., Grisso, T., Gudjonsson, G. H., Leo, R. A., & Redlich, A. D. (2010). Police-induced confessions: Risk factors and recommendations. Law and Human Behavior, 34(1), 3-38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-009-9188-6
Kassin, S. M., Kukucka, J., Lawson, V. Z., & DeCarlo, J. (2014). Does video recording alter the behavior of police during interrogation? A mock crime-and-investigation study. Law and Human Behavior, 38(1), 73-83. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000047
Kranacher, M.-J., & Riley, R. A. (2019). Forensic accounting and fraud examination (2nd ed.). Wiley.
What the ACC 692 Module 8 instructions ask for
In Module Eight, ACC 692 asks you to document an interview. Most versions provide a scenario or notes and ask for a memorandum of interview, sometimes with a signed statement, plus an explanation of the principles that guided you. The memorandum must record the facts of the interview, including date, place, participants, warnings and documents, and then the interviewee's account, accurately and without the interviewer's opinions. A signed statement is a separate document in the interviewee's voice, covering the essential facts and acknowledging that it was given voluntarily. Graders reward precision, neutrality, completeness and correct format more than length, and many add a short reflection on how the documents would be used by a prosecutor or a defense lawyer.
How this ACC 692 Module 8 interview documentation assignment example is built
The paper opens with five documentation principles: write promptly, record facts not conclusions, keep one memorandum per interview, quote key admissions exactly and note documents received. The memorandum then records the contractor's voluntary interview: who attended, that he was told he could leave and consult a lawyer, and his account of being offered surplus diesel by the fleet supervisor in December 2022, buying about 33,000 gallons at $1.90 a gallon and 240 tires over three winters, all for cash and collected after 10 p.m. It quotes his statement that he figured it was not exactly surplus. The signed statement that follows is in his words, with an acknowledgment of voluntariness and his initials on each page.
Where the ACC 692 Module 8 rubric puts the points
The rubric for interview documentation usually weighs accuracy and completeness, objectivity, proper format of the memorandum and statement, treatment of admissions and documents, compliance with legal requirements such as warnings, and clarity. Top papers record what was said in the interviewee's words where it matters, separate facts from interpretation, note who was present and what warnings were given, and produce a statement the interviewee could not later claim to misunderstand. They also explain why each feature matters for later use. Common deductions come from conclusions in the memorandum, such as describing the interviewee as evasive, missing participants or times, and statements that include promises or legal terms the interviewee would not use.
ACC 692 Module 8 help: the mistakes that cost points
The most common slip is writing the memorandum as a story told by the examiner, with judgments such as "he admitted guilt" or "he was clearly lying." Write what the person said and did, and let the reader judge. Another problem is incompleteness: start and end times, everyone in the room, warnings and documents handed over must all appear. In signed statements, students often write in formal legal language that no witness would use, which invites a later claim that the words were the examiner's. Keep the statement in plain first-person language, have the witness read it, invite corrections and have each page initialed.
Get ACC 692 Module 8 written to your instructions
Send the ACC 692 Module 8 assignment with your interview notes or scenario. The paper will set out the documentation rules, then produce a clean memorandum of interview and a signed statement in proper form. Expect about two days; a first paper is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
More ACC 692 papers and related MS Accounting samples
- ACC 692 Module 1 Discussion: What a Fraud Interview Is For
- ACC 692 Module 2 Interview Planning Assignment: Who to Talk To, and in What Order
- ACC 692 Module 3 Milestone One: The Interview Plan for the Highway Department
- ACC 692 Module 4 Discussion: Seeking an Admission Without Forcing One
- ACC 692 Module 5 Legal Elements Assignment: Walking the Facts Through the Statutes
- ACC 692 Module 6 Milestone Two: Rights, Warnings and Evidence That Will Hold
- ACC 692 Module 7 Discussion: What a Nervous Witness Does and Does Not Reveal
- MBA 580 Module 8 Final Innovation Strategy Proposal
- ACC 690 Module 6 Milestone Two: Accounting for a Transferable Clean Fuel Credit
- ACC 550 Module 8 Discussion: A Balanced Scorecard for the Candy Division
- ACC 640 Module 2 Client Acceptance Assignment: Taking Over After a Resignation
ACC 692 Module 8 questions, answered
Where can I find a free ACC 692 Module 8 Interview Documentation sample?
A complete ACC 692 Module 8 memorandum of interview and signed statement from an excavating contractor are on this page.
What is a memorandum of interview?
A written record prepared soon after an interview that sets out when and where it occurred, who was present, any warnings given, documents exchanged and what the interviewee said.
What should a signed statement include?
The essential facts told in the witness's own plain first-person words, a line confirming nobody pressured or bargained with them, and their signature plus initials on every page.
Should an interview memorandum include the interviewer's opinions?
No; it should record facts and the interviewee's words, because opinions can be challenged and can mislead later readers.
Why record interviews electronically?
Recordings capture exactly what was said and how, protect interviewers against claims of coercion and, according to research, can improve interviewer conduct.