Anatomy of An Interview, Part I: how to best solicit the truth

Verbal - and nonverbal - clues point to guilt.

by Jim Marasco , CPA, CFE, CIA
Director, Corporate Services
StoneBridge Business Partners

Reprinted with permission from Fraud Matters Newsletter of CPA America.

A properly planned interview can yield much more than simply learning about a subject’s background information.

Techniques such as behavior analysis can be used to determine whether someone is being truthful or deceitful.

By incorporating behavior-provoking questions during the session, the interviewer can observe and analyze verbal, as well as nonverbal, responses.

Verbal Responses

The interviewer begins with general nonthreatening questions. These include biological information, employment information, casual conversation, etc.

The interviewer then asks a series of open-ended questions, structured to allow the interviewer to evaluate the response against how a truthful or deceitful person would reply.

Each question touches upon a particular topic. The topics and their aims include:

  • Purpose – Truthful subjects can usually identify the issue in detail.
  • History – Truthful subjects offer spontaneous, direct and sincere denials.
  • Suspicion – Truthful subjects will substantiate any suspicions.
  • Elimination – Truthful subjects will eliminate people from suspicion.
  • Credibility – Truthful subjects acknowledge the crime or act.
  • Punishment – Truthful subjects generally call for strong punishment.
  • Denial – Truthful subjects offer direct denial and consider the seriousness of the offense.
  • Second Chance – Truthful subjects will reject the idea of leniency.
  • Results – Truthful subjects expect investigation results to be favorable.
  • Bait – Truthful subjects reject the implications of a bait question.

For example, a question related to punishment may be phrased: “If an individual was found to be stealing from this company, what would constitute a fair punishment?”

An honest person is more inclined to offer that a harsh punishment should be handed down: “They should be put in jail and forced to pay it back.”

A guilty person is more apt to lobby that lenient consideration should be given to the individual. They may even argue that extraneous circumstances justify the actions. “They might have been cheated by the company and took what was owed to them.”

Nonverbal Responses

Physical behavior also plays a key role. The mannerisms of a person answering deceitfully could include:

  • Staring away from interviewer or failing to maintain eye contact
  • Answering with a nonverbal response such as a shake of the head
  • Qualifying their answers or using religion or oaths to support their statements
  • Fidgeting, tapping their feet or rocking in their chair
  • Sweating noticeably, sighing heavily or breathing deeply

At the end of the questioning, both the verbal and nonverbal responses are reviewed and evaluated. This approach has been found to be highly effective on most people and helps make the interview an integral part of your overall case.

James I. Marasco, CPA/CFF, CFE, CIA
Jim is a partner at EFP Rotenberg. He brings more than 18 years of public accounting and auditing experience. He is a full-time management consultant and travels extensively throughout the country while leading StoneBridge Business Partners (an EFP Rotenberg affiliate company). Read more about Jim . Article republished with the permission of CPAmerica.