The seventh grade citizens of Knockville, a country lead by instructor (and one time Senator) Dean Nakanishi located at Alderwood Middle School in Lynnwood, W
ashington, have learned a valuable lesson for both the CM game and life in general when they were caught “counterfeiting” Civic Mirror money. The team at The Civic Mirror Trenches were informed through an anonymous source that the circumstances seemed suspicious when one student was seen
“scurrying back and forth between computer terminals and small gatherings of students huddled around, some laughing, some shushing, some looking around nervously. They all hurried back to their own stations typing away furiously.”
When the dust settled, an eye popping number $1,652,380 emereged.
“That was the bankroll of the mastermind behind the Financial Scandal of 2001 in the country of Knockville, Roman. After pouring over the trades/transactions section of the Civic Mirror site I found that a good number of students had found a loophole in the system. They were offering themselv
es “trades” of “money” which ended up increasing their bottom line. This funny money being digitally counterfeited ended up luring in about 1/3 of the country.”
When asked to comment Mr. Nakanishi stated,
” I could have gone off the handle, but instead I took it as a learning moment for me as well as them. I froze their accounts and we paused as we entered an emergency court situation and I notified the perpetrators of the crime that had been going on during the year, what they were being charged with, and what rights and options they had at that point. Everyone but one took a plea bargain (after that had been explained to them). They wrote letters of apology, had their money go back to their original post hex auction levels, and they were frozen out of WB points for the following year.”
These excerpts were taken from those letters of apology written to the citizens of Knockville by the Perpetrators:
“Dear citizens of Knockville I took the money to buy food for my family, I am deeply sorry and I accept the punishment I’m getting. I didn’t think stealing from the system would hurt anyone.”
“It was wrong and I take full responsibility for my actions and am at your mercy.”
“I needed the money so I wouldn’t lose any more family members, please forgive me.”
“I returned all of the money, I am deeply sorry for stealing. I regret ever doing this.”
“I thought it just a glitch in the system, you know the computer program, I didn’t think I’d be stealing for the government, I didn’t think I’d get caught. I am very sorry and will never do anything like that again.”
Nakanishi further explained, 
“We ended up having a 20 minute discussion about integrity, honesty, and how when someone cheats or steals it is only a matter of time of when they will be found out. We had a great discussion about responsibility as well and decision making. What could have just been a moment of anger and assigning punitive punishments as an instructor turned into a great moment to talk about the real world.
Speaking of the real world… The mastermind behind it all got off nearly scott free. Roman insisted on his innocence and how he wanted to go to court before his peers. A good lawyer, a prosecutor who didn’t have her evidence lined up, and maybe a judge who was in his pocket?…had him walking away from court that day with him only returning the stolen money and no other punishment. The jury found him guilty, but the judge, who was also a fellow government crony only fined him the difference between the million dollars and his true dollar total from the beginning of the round. Alas, this reflects some of our society’s reality as well.
Citizen’s reactions to Roman’s rather light penalty despite being found guilty:
“The results from the trial of this financial scandal was disappointing. We have families to feed with very little money (my relatives are dying of starvation!) while he cheats and steals money. We are working hard for our money! I think that he deserved a bigger punishment. He needs to work for his money, just like the rest of us!” – Kassidee
“Roman shouldn’t have gotten off so easy. He may not have ‘known’ that he was doing something wrong but he shouldn’t have gotten his old money back. He should have had to earn it back like everybody else does throughout the whole game. So Roman should be thankful that the Judge and Jury gave him such a light sentence. But I guess that’s the way it goes. But I honestly think that he might try to pull something off like this again.” – Shakira
“I want to first off state that I had nothing to do with the financial scandal that occurred in 2001. If that it was wrong that they should have known better even thou there wasn’t a rule stating not to steal they still shouldn’t have done it. I felt that Roman should have been jailed for the next ‘year’ and have all his money taken away it should be this way because its not fair while everyone else is working hard to help there family survive.” – President LaChe
When the citizens of Knockville found a monetary “loophole” in the system, they thought they had won the Civic Mirror Jackpot! These citizens have found, however, that crime does not pay and that it cheats those around them who worked hard to earn their own money. Money illlegally obtained is not earned and most Knockvillians learned that it will end up biting them in the end.
