Am I first a friend, an officer of the court, or a US Citizen?

Question

Here's the deal...

A close friend, who is a general contractor, has hired an immigrant who has a work visa petition pending. The catch is that the immigrant employee is no longer working for the company that originally petitioned for the work visa on behalf of the immigrant in question. Put more simply, Company B petitioned for employee, who now works for Company A, my friend's company.

My friend wants me to investigate the status of his employee's petition. First, the original petition is now void, since the employee is no longer working for the petitioner. Second, my friend knows that the employee entered the country illegally, and that the original petition was fraudulent, in that certain figures and numbers were exaggerated. The original petitioner is willing to continue the masquerade, and claim falsely that the employee still works for him.

Should I turn in Companies A and B, as well as the undocumented employee, to the proper authorities? What do you all think?

My friend claims that the employee is the only person he could find that has the technical expertise, trustworthiness, project management experience, and bilingual language skills, and he cannot afford to lose him at this juncture.

Answer 1

Ahhhh the question of one's integrity... this is the test that determines our character.

All 3 are right and all 3 have costs.

1. You decide it is none of your business. You are protecting yourself from getting involved and out of trouble or conflict.

2. You do your friend a favor and possibly win a friend for life but while jeopardizing yourself and know that illegal activity is going on.

3. You go by the law, remove personal aspects of it and report all.

I know what I would do but this is one of those things that you and only you can decide... you have to choose the path for yourself.

Think about it... haven't you met all those 3 types of ppl in your life. I know I have. I know that type #1 gets on my nerves for never taking action... Type #2 tend to get burnt later by the type of friend that would ask them for a favor that puts you at risk in the first place. And Type #3 leaves you feeling you did the right thing but you lose friends and feel bad later because your actions affected someone else life negatively.

See what I mean, all 3 have a price. This is such a great example of LIFE in it's truest form.

Answer 2

Write to your congressman and advocate for a change in our immigration situation. Have the USA add Mexico as another state, start really cracking down on employers and make them have rigiorous, foolproof identity verification (and then WHO would do all the work??), track what people who make large amounts of cash withdrawls are doing with the money to keep people from paying workers under the table, simply let whoever wants to work in the USA come here and work - whatever. Just any change that makes more sense than our current stupid situation because when it boils down to it, we need the illegal immigrants to do the work that keeps our country running. If tomorrow, we shipped them all back home and secured the borders well enough so that none could return, we'd have a HUGE problem on our hands.

But bothering someone who is a victim of our stupid system doesn't really seem like it will do anything positive in the end. I say, just leave well enough alone.

Answer 3

It depends on how much your friend has disclosed and under what circumstances. Since he has brought you into the scheme by asking you to investigate the status of his employee's petition, you could also be held accountable as an accomplice to the fraud or a co-conspirator should someone else report the crime, or the authorities find out. You need to discuss all legal options with your friend, and tell him to hire or speak with his attorney immediately (if not you). If you begin to counsel him in the direction of legal remedies, you may be able to show a court you did not wish to participate in illegal activities, and you won't need to report the crime directly. If you are acting as his attorney, you can maintain the confidence of your friend/client--though it then becomes your responsibility to convince him to let this illegal employee go.

Good luck!

Answer 4

If you are an officer of the court - and by that I assume you mean a lawyer or serve in some other official capacity, you are obligated to report a crime if the person committing it is not your client. Failing to do so could have repercussions far greater than losing a friend should it come to light that you were privy to this information and did not report it. Try giving him one more chance to recitfy it on his own and explain that if he doesn't "come clean" you have no choice but to follow up..

Answer 5

You're a lawyer, right Jack? You are first a LAWYER, with a duty of confidentiality. In your attorney-client privileged conversation, you learned of these illegal activities. You cannot disclose anything that would be a violation of your confidence with your friend (which you may have done by posting this hypothetical).
Whether or not you turn in Company B is completely up to you, except that you learned through protected communications.

Answer 6

You should have stayed out of it in the first place as it represents a conflict of interest between you, your friend and your role as officer of the court (I assume the court you're part of is involved in this petition). That said, you should pull out of it and report what you know. Your friendship may be over becuase of it, but would you rather go to jail or lose your job over a friendship? Your friend is not really your friend if he's asking you to do something unethical or unlawful.

Answer 7

It's your conscience, what does your code of ethics tell you?

If you don't know the answer, think of it this way, if the whole world were told your actions on international television, what would you want the world to hear? Would you want them to hear you followed the law, stuck by a friend, or carried out the duties as an officer of the court?

Answer 8

No you should not turn him in. This information was provided to you on an implied understanding that it would be confidential.

You refer to yourself as an officer of the court. If you are a lawyer, then you should definitely keep this confidential. The reason being that justice is best served by clients being able to trust their lawyer to keep confidential information a secret. The only exceptions are to prevent death or serious bodily harm.

You can, both, act with integrity and keep your mouth shut.

Answer 9

I would tell my friend this has become too complicated and I must excuse myself from being involved and let him deal with immigration on this. It is the only way to keep a friend and not put yourself in a position of purjury to protect your friend.

Answer 10

As a US citizen, you must place first the interests of your country. Thus, report the illegality that are committed by Companies and A and B for manipulating your friend.