U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing and the families of victims of the fatal crash as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to criminally charge the planemaker, according to two people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
Justice Department officials met with Boeing’s lawyers on Thursday to discuss the government’s conclusion that the company violated a 2021 settlement with the department, one of the people said. That deal, known as a “deferred prosecution agreement,” shielded it from criminal prosecution over two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Separately, federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet with family members of the victims on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, according to the second person. U.S. officials are working on a “tight schedule,” according to an email sent by the Justice Department and reviewed by Reuters.
Boeing’s lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis presented their arguments to officials in the deputy attorney general’s office on Thursday that prosecutions were not warranted and that there was no need to terminate the 2021 deal, one of the people said.
Such calls from companies in the Justice Department’s crosshairs are routine during negotiations to resolve a government investigation.
Officials are seeking input from family members to determine how to proceed, according to the email. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Division and the Dallas District Attorney’s Office will participate in Sunday’s meeting.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Boeing declined to comment.
Boeing has previously said it complied with the terms of the agreement and formally told prosecutors it disagreed with the finding that it violated the agreement.
U.S. prosecutors have recommended that senior Justice Department officials bring criminal charges against Boeing after finding that the planemaker violated the 2021 agreement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The two sides are currently discussing a potential resolution to the Justice Department investigation and there is no guarantee that officials will move forward with charges, they said last week.
The proceedings follow the Jan. 5 mid-air explosion of a panel on a Boeing plane, just two days before the company’s DPA expired. The incident highlighted ongoing safety and quality issues at Boeing.
Boeing was set to escape prosecution over a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following fatal crashes in 2018-2019.
Prosecutors had agreed to drop criminal charges on the condition that Boeing review its compliance practices and submit regular reports over a three-year period. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.
In May, officials determined that the company had breached the agreement, exposing it to prosecution. The Justice Department said in a complaint filed in Texas that the planemaker failed to “design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program designed to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.” (Reporting by Chris Prentice and Mike Spector in New York; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreat; Writing by Chizu Nomiyama)
