Whistle Blowing By Engineers And Reverse Whistle Blowing On Engineers

This paper introduces two case studies in engineering ethics related to white-collar crime and whistle-blowing lawsuits. In these case studies engineers were employed by corporations that benefited from employee criminal behavior. These employees were fired and filed wrongful-termination lawsuits claiming whistle-blower protections. These lawsuits, as well as Department of Justice guidelines, created strong incentives for the corporate employers to demonstrate that the engineers, not the corporations, were at fault for the criminal behavior.