Engineering Ethics—Case Studies in Fraudulent Safety Claims

In this online engineering PDH course, the engineering ethics aspects of fraudulent safety claims are examined in light of the standards of conduct expected of professional engineers.

Fraud has been defined as “the intentional use of deceit, a trick or some dishonest means to deprive another of his/her/its money, property or a legal right” (Law.com Dictionary). When, for example, the seller of a product deceives a buyer into believing that the product meets safety standards—and the seller knows that it does not—then the seller of the product has committed fraud.

The purpose of this course is to widen the professional engineer’s understanding of engineering ethics through consideration of three case studies of fraudulent safety claims made by engineers working in large corporations. The studies describe actual cases that have been successfully prosecuted by agencies of the U.S. federal government, and that involved terrible consequences in injury and loss of life.

The ethical—rather than legal—aspects of the cases are developed by identifying specific passages in published Standards of Conduct for professional engineers that were violated by the engineers who were found guilty of fraud.