Fraudulent Engineering

[mayanees]

DE Association of Prof Engineers

DE Association of Prof Engineers

I'm on the DAPE Law Enforcement and Ethics committee and I think if this happened to a DE PE, there wouldn't be anything the Board could do to the offender because the board only has purview over registrants.
But DE is unique, and I don't know if CA functions in the same manner.

 

[tw1156]

Texas Board

Texas Board

In Texas you do not have to be a P.E. to have the board go after you; they even post the infraction and civil penalty on their website (https://engineers.texas.gov/disciplinary.htm) Here's an example, but with names removed:

(COMPANY NAME), (Some Town), TX; Case Number B–XXXXX
Violation: [FONT=&quot](COMPANY NAME) unlawfully offered and practiced engineering without being registered with the Board and falsely signed and sealed engineering documents indicating a professional engineer performed or directly supervised the work.[/FONT]
Act/Rule Violated: [FONT=&quot]Tex. Occ. Code §§ 1001.405(b)(1)–(2) and 1001.405(e) and 22 TAC §§ 137.37(b) and 137.77(a) and (d)–(e).[/FONT]
Resolution: [FONT=&quot]Cease & Desist Order & an Administrative Penalty of $3,900.00.


[/FONT]

 

[rbalex]

I'm on the DAPE Law Enforcement and Ethics committee and I think if this happened to a DE PE, there wouldn't be anything the Board could do to the offender because the board only has purview over registrants.
But DE is unique, and I don't know if CA functions in the same manner.

On the webpage I cited earlier, the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BORPLES) cannot criminally sanction a non-licensed individual either; however, they can and do fine them and "refer(...) the matter to the district attorney for criminal prosecution" as appropriate. Criminal cases are rare, but whatever sanctions are that are issued are publically documented in the Bulletin: Board News and Enforcement Actions.​

 

[charlie b]

Going back to the initial post, here is the essence of the situation:

Someone had . . . added some additional load calculations . . . .

That constituted the practice of engineering. And it was not performed under the supervision of the PE whose seal appears on the drawing.
Then we have:

They also removed my title block that included “Preliminary Drawings for DWP Service Planning” and added their own.

That constituted an act of fraud, in that it falsely claimed that the engineer had sealed and signed the drawings for the purpose of construction.

 

[Ingenieur]

Any document that carries my seal has my reputation and my livelihood riding on it, and any alteration of a document that carries my seal that occurs after it has left my hands constitutes a fraudulent and unauthorized use of my seal. I would never "give" my seal to someone else for their use, and any document I release with my seal affixed does not constitute anything remotely like that. The nature of the document is irrelevant.

There is absolutely no difference between someone cutting and pasting my seal onto a new document and someone altering the information contained in a document I have sealed. If it is different at all it is totally different, and it's not what I sealed.

If so clear cut all he needs to do
go to cops
make complaint
cops will charge and arrest
normal trial process

 

[petersonra]

If so clear cut all he needs to do
go to cops
make complaint
cops will charge and arrest
normal trial process

I would be willing to bet the cops are not going to understand the law well enough to feel they can get a conviction and pass the buck to the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office is going to see it as a nuisance case since no one was bleeding and pass the buck to the PE board.

 

[Ingenieur]

I would be willing to bet the cops are not going to understand the law well enough to feel they can get a conviction and pass the buck to the prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office is going to see it as a nuisance case since no one was bleeding and pass the buck to the PE board.

Most likely
and in many states the board only has juristiction over registrants
viscious circle

some states can refer criminal complaints to the AG
imo what happened here does not meet the criminal standard

 

[JDBrown]

As a fellow CA PE, this kind of thing makes me so angry. My previous employer once designed a new restaurant for a major fast food chain. A year or so after the completion of that project, he received a phone call from an upset EC, complaining about discrepancies between the Electrical and Architectural plans. Trouble was, this EC wasn't working on the project my boss had designed; it was the same fast food chain, but a different building in a totally different city.

My boss had the EC send him a copy of the plans he was working from, and sure enough, someone had taken the original plans and just replaced the title block to show a different address.

I wish I could say the company I worked for got compensated for the unauthorized use of our design, but it didn't. I don't believe anyone went to jail either, although I'm pretty sure someone lost his job over it. But even though we didn't get any compensation, this is the sort of thing we as professionals have to vigorously guard against, or other unscrupulous individuals will see the lack of consequences and commit the same sort of fraud.

After this incident, drawings that did not need to be sealed got a bold "NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" in the space set aside for the stamp. If the drawings needed to show the stamp but were not intended for construction (as in OP's case), they got a bold "NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" written diagonally right over the top of the stamp. It won't prevent all fraud, of course (it's not exactly difficult to recreate a PE stamp in AutoCAD), but it forces the fraudster to expend a little more effort and invalidates most excuses for altering the drawings (like "I didn't know").

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Fulthrotl]

As a fellow CA PE, this kind of thing makes me so angry.

well, nobody likes a cheater.

less people like a thief, especially if what was stolen was
how you make your living.

i do lighting certifications. you leave a wet ink signed
certificaton, in triplicate, on the jobsite.

and you wonder... how many of those certs get "recycled".
they aren't serialized, nor are the inspectors, it appears,
all that diligent about verifying they are legal.

and i've seen counterfeit certifications, dropped off on the
jobsite for a few hundred bucks, before the lights were even
installed, let alone working. more than once or twice.

with pdf's, you can, using acrobat pro, lock the pdf so it can't
even be printed, just viewed online. however, there are third
party pdf software suites that navigate around adobe standards
easily.

i'm about ready to put the certification in a folder on dropbox
set to view only, with a QR code on a nice laminated 4" x 6"
label affixed to the lighting cabinet.

the inspector or anyone else, can view the certification there
at any time. scan the code, and it opens the folder with the
cert for that job there.

i'm about to check with the folks that license and regulate
my certifications to see if this is an acceptable practice.

if the permitted work is complaint, they get a sticker.
when i get back, i generate the paperwork, set the pdfs to
view only, set dropbox to view only, no downloads, and
put the documents there for distribution.