Legal Question in Technology Law in Pennsylvania

Employee Aware of Owner Stealing from customers

1) If an employee is aware or believes the owner of a business is stealing and/or defrauding his customers in some way, if the employee says nothing to the authorities, is the employee culpable in any way?

2) If the employee decides at a later point to inform the legal authorities (i.e. police) about his or her beliefs about their boss’s potential wrongdoing, does this contact absolve them from any legal trouble? (The employee in this case has done nothing illegal).

3) If the employee has detailed information about customers who the business defrauded, can this list of customers be used/contacted in a class action suite?


Asked on 8/27/07, 11:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Roger Traversa Arjont Group (Law Office of Roger Traversa)

Re: Employee Aware of Owner Stealing from customers

You asked about corruption an ongoing enterprise.

There are a number of issues here and an employee would be culpable in only a few situations. Such as 1) the employee participated, 2) a government entity was involved and the employee remained silent (this is overly simplified), 3) the employee was implicated after the fact (such as by holding the knowledge over the bosses head).

Basically, this is a very bad situation and the employee should seek advice of counsel in order to proceed. Yes, there may be a suit available, but that should not be a primary concern. Rather the employee should look to do the right thing. This probably needs to be done cautiously but should be done expeditiously.

Contact me or another attorney immediately to speak about this further.

Regards,

Roger

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Answered on 8/28/07, 12:06 am


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