Don’t think it can’t happen to you. Kelly Richmond Pope is certain we are all capable of committing a crime.

She is the head of Helios Digital Learning, a company that teaches students and professionals how to strengthen their ethics when it comes to decision making.

She will talk about it tomorrow, at the CPA Bermuda Women’s Leadership Conference.

“Often my lectures are about how good employees can make bad decisions, specifically how good employees can rationalise bad decisions,” said Dr Pope.

The public accountant who works as an associate professor at DePaul University in Chicago is also a documentary film-maker.

“We all are presented with opportunity and what distinguishes good people from bad, if you will, is the way that we rationalise or operationalise an opportunity.

“I like to remind people of how similar we all are when we make bad decisions and to think two steps before that bad decision, because it can really shape your life.”

Her film All the Queen’s Horses won HBO’s Best Documentary Award when it debuted at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival last month.

It chronicles the largest municipal fraud in US history, in the small town of Dixon, Illinois.

“Their city controller [Rita Crundwell] embezzled $53 million over 20 years and nobody knew it until she was caught,” Dr Pope said.

“The documentary chronicles how something like this can happen anywhere. Dixon has a population of 16,000 people. This is why ethics matter, so that these types of events don’t happen anywhere else.”

She will use the film during her talk in Bermuda, to illustrate that point.

“We are seeing an interesting time in the United States where, oftentimes, it’s a by-any-means-necessary approach to business and life,” she said.

“If you are a middle-income person and you cannot afford a very expensive attorney to get you out of trouble, you can easily find yourself going to jail for a really bad decision.”

She gets frustrated by the way people used “them” to describe criminals.

“I believe that everybody has the potential to make those types of decisions,” she said. “In the past ten years, the rise of social media has really made us feel like we should have what everyone else has.

“Being able to look inside people’s lives in a way that we never have before, sometimes can create these desires.

“When I was 22 years old, I didn’t know how a star lived. [Social media] makes us feel like we should have whatever Beyoncé and Rihanna have.”

A student’s paper on forensic accounting changed the course of her career 17 years ago.

“When I learnt more about the field I thought it was the perfect blend for me because it was the combination of psychology, accounting, sociology, criminology, all wrapped up in this one field,” she said.

“I’m a little bit nosy too. I like to learn from other people’s stories and I was fascinated by this question of how good people can make really bad decisions; how you can risk it all for an extra $20,000 that you didn’t even need.”

Dr Pope travelled the US interviewing white-collar workers, whistleblowers and victims of fraud, turning those interviews into training courses and teaching materials for university.

They also led to her first documentary, Crossing the Line: Ordinary People Committing Extraordinary Crime.

“I used a lot of TV in my classes to teach accounting. I love stories, I love film and TV and I think it’s a very effective way to communicate,” she said.

“There are so many financial fraud-type shows that are so popular. You have Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Narcos, movies that have been Oscar-nominated [such as] The Big Short — there’s a trend and interest in crime. Because accounting numbers tell stories and accounting numbers can be manipulated, it is a natural thing to talk about in film.

“Every time I do an interview and they share their story with me, I’m able to understand how they got from point A to B and C. That’s what keeps me grounded.

“I think about how that person could have been my classmate or my colleague and just one mistake led them to destroying their life. This can’t happen to me — I never think that anymore. Because it can happen to you. If you’re not diligent about the way you think through decisions it will happen to you.”

She laughed: “That keeps me straight.”

Women’s leadership

Workplace bullying, ethics, abuse and whistleblowing will be addressed at the CPA Bermuda Women’s Leadership Conference.

On offer are solutions to creating a more civil work environment.

• Christie Hunter Arscott will discuss how to address bullying through workplace cultures of civility.

• Doris DeCosta will lead a panel discussion on what bullying looks like.

• Kelly Richmond Pope will discuss the importance of incorporating ethical values within the workplace.

The conference runs tomorrow from 12.30pm-5.30pm at Hamilton Princess & Beach Club. To register, visit cpabermuda.com or call 292-7479.