Many times, an employee has identified fraud against the government occurring within their place of employment. They want to report this fraud, or blow the whistle, but are afraid to because they participated in the fraud. This is often an extremely difficult situation. Potential whistleblowers know the fraud is wrong, but they also do not want to face repercussions for it. However, their involvement was likely entirely forced by their employer. The employee may want to blow the whistle to stop their own involvement, or they may just want to do the right thing.
When someone is involved with defrauding the government, they are considered to have unclean hands. If an employer forced the employee to participate in the fraud, they may be immune from being found with unclean hands.
The Department of Justice and Unclean Hands