Asked to do something illegal at work? Here's what these software engineers did

Summary

The below topic was sent out to full subscribers of The Pragmatic Engineer, three weeks ago, in The Pulse #66. I have received several messages from people asking if they can pay to “unlock” this information for others, given how vital it is for software engineers. It is vital, and so I’m sharing this with all readers, without a paywall. In the unlikely case that you are asked to do something fishy or illegal: I hope the below will help decide how to do the right thing. Sign up to The Pragmatic Engineer to get articles like this earlier in your inbox. It's a pretty good read, and the #1 tech publication on Substack.What would you do if you learned your company is up to something illegal like stealing customer funds, or you’re asked to make code changes that will enable something illegal to happen, like misleading investors, or defrauding customers? Here are three real-life cases, where what engineers and engineering managers did had serious consequences.FTX: an engineering director went along with the fraudA trial related to FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange which allegedly defrauded investors of $9B, is ongoing. Day 9 of the trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried trial, heard testimony from Nishad Singh, who joined the business as a software engineer, and later became an engineering director. Here is software engineer and writer Molly Whitesummarizes of his evidence:“To hear Singh tell it, he didn’t even really realize what was going on at FTX and Alameda Research until September 2022 — only a month or two before everything came crashing down. (...) Several times throughout various testimonies, we’ve seen a document written by Sam Bankman-Fried, in which he describes his thinking that Alameda Research should be shut down. That document was, ultimately, how Singh learned in September 2022 that Alameda Research had taken billions of dollars of customer funds from FTX. This was when Gary Wang told Singh that Alameda was borrowing massive amounts of customer money fr...