The U.S. Justice Department is considering an offer for Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in connection with two fatal plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to two people who heard federal prosecutors detail the offer Sunday.
Updated yesterday at 7:24 p.m.
David Kœnig
Associated Press
Boeing will have until the end of next week to accept or reject the offer, which requires the aerospace giant to agree to have an independent monitor oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, they said.
The case stems from the department’s resolution that Boeing violated an agreement that sought to resolve a 2021 conspiracy charge to defraud the U.S. government. Prosecutors had alleged at the time that Boeing misled regulators who approved the 737 Max and set training requirements for pilots to fly the plane. The company blamed the fraud on two relatively low-level employees.
The Justice Department notified relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the plea offer in a video meeting. Family members, who want Boeing to face a criminal trial and pay a $24.8 billion fine, reacted angrily. One said prosecutors were setting families on fire; another yelled at them for several minutes when given a chance to speak.
Nadia Milleron, a resident of Massachusetts, said: “We are devastated. They should just press charges. » His 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two 737 Max crashes. She added: “They say we can argue in front of the judge.”
Prosecutors told the families that if Boeing rejected the plea offer, the Justice Department would seek a trial in the case, people at the meeting said. Justice Department officials presented the offer to Boeing at a meeting later Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Boeing and the Justice Department declined to comment.
The plea deal would deprive U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the ability to increase Boeing’s sentence if convicted, and some families are considering asking the Texas judge to reject the deal if Boeing accepts it.
“The underlying scandalous aspect of this agreement is that it does not recognize that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” said Paul Cassell, one of the lawyers for the victims’ families. “Boeing is not going to be held responsible for this, and they are not going to admit that this happened.” »
Sanjiv Singh, a lawyer for 16 families who lost loved ones in the Lion Air crash off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, called the plea offer “extremely disappointing.”
Another lawyer representing the families suing Boeing, Mark Lindquist, said he asked the head of the Justice Department’s fraud section, Glenn Leon, whether the department would add additional charges if Boeing refused the plea deal. “He would not commit one way or another,” said Mr.e Lindquist.
The meeting with the families of the crash victims came weeks after prosecutors told Mr O’Connor that the US aerospace giant had violated the January 2021 agreement that protected Boeing from criminal prosecution linked to accidents. The second took place in Ethiopia less than five months after the one in Indonesia.
Questioning federal contracts
A conviction could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor, some legal experts say. The company has major contracts with the Pentagon and NASA.
However, federal agencies can grant waivers to companies convicted of crimes to keep them eligible for government contracts. Lawyers for the crash victims’ families expect this to be done for Boeing.
Boeing paid a US$244 million fine as part of the 2021 settlement of the original fraud charge. The Justice Department will likely seek another similar sanction as part of the new plea offer, said a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a pending case.
The deal would include a monitor to oversee Boeing — but the company would propose three candidates and ask the Justice Department to choose one, or ask Boeing for additional names. That provision was particularly disliked by family members on the call, participants said.
The Justice Department also gave no indication of a decision to prosecute current or former Boeing executives, another long-sought demand by the families.
Me Lindquist, a former prosecutor, said officials made clear in a previous meeting that individuals — even CEOs — could be more sympathetic defendants than companies. Officials cited the 2022 acquittal on fraud charges of Boeing’s chief technical pilot for the Max as an example.
It’s unclear what impact a plea deal might have on other Boeing investigations, including those that followed the expulsion of a panel called a door stopper from the side of a Boeing Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
