Monday, July 08, 2024 - Boeing has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge to avoid a criminal trial in connection with a Justice Department investigation into two deadly crashes involving 737 MAX jetliners.
The criminal case relates to two 737 MAX jetliner
crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 in which 346 people were
killed, leading to demands from the victims' families for Boeing to face
prosecution.
"We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in
principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the
memorialization and approval of specific terms," a spokesperson for Boeing
told FOX Business.
The plea deal still requires a federal judge's approval but
would label the plane manufacturer a convicted felon if accepted. As part of
the plea, Boeing will also pay a criminal fine of $243.6 million, a DOJ
official told Reuters.
That fine is on top of the $243.6 million Boeing paid after
the DOJ said it breached a 2021 settlement by not complying with
certain conditions agreed upon during the settlement.
The deal only covers the company, not any current or former
Boeing officials, the DOJ told Reuters, adding that charges against any person
are unlikely because of the statute of limitations.
Federal prosecutors had offered Boeing the option of
entering a guilty plea and paying a fine or going to trial on the felony
criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration
over a software feature linked to the fatal crashes.
A lawyer for some of the families criticized the plea
agreement as a "sweetheart deal" and said they plan to oppose the
deal in court, according to Reuters.
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