Boeing may have corporate monitoring amid DoJ hearings to address possible costs
Boeing Co is in talks with the US Justice Department to settle possible charges stemming from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
The deal could be announced as soon as next week and is expected to include the placement of a supervisor at the world’s second-largest airline, according to the people, who asked not to be identified to disclose confidential negotiations. DOJ prosecutors want to file charges against Boeing, but it’s unclear whether the company will agree to plead guilty, the people said.
Negotiations center on a deferred prosecution agreement for 2021 struck between Boeing and the DOJ in the saddest days of the Trump administration, after two accidents that killed 346 people. Some members of the families of the deceased urged the government to file charges that would help them file charges against the company.
A resolution of the government’s case will allow Boeing to move forward as it faces steep declines at its factories and intense scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and customers. If an agreement is reached, the problem is far from over. The US continues to investigate the explosion of a fuselage panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet in January, and a grand jury in Seattle could bring more charges.
A Boeing spokesman declined to comment, as did the DOJ.
Boeing’s executive board is in turmoil as its board searches for a new CEO. The company’s financials also reflect the difficulty of declining production after the accident, as it works to strengthen quality and retrain workers under the watchful eye of the Federal Aviation Administration. The company warned that it is on track to spend about $8 billion in the first half of 2024.
Federal prosecutors appeared to go easy on Boeing when they allowed the company to avoid charges of lying to the Federal Aviation Administration about changes made to its 737 Max plane, which caused two crashes.
The department reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the company that included a $243 million fine, but absolved Boeing executives of any responsibility for the crashes, the second such incident after a Boeing executive at the time assured the public that the plane existed. it is safe.
As part of the 2021 agreement, Boeing promised to improve compliance and internal control arrangements, but the government did not call an external monitor.
Some families of the crash victims asked the DOJ earlier this month to fine Boeing nearly $25 billion, saying the company committed “the worst corporate crime in American history.” One of their lawyers suggested in a letter to the department that $14 billion to $22 billion could be stopped if the plane’s designer dedicated those funds to private security companies and the development of their security systems.
Justice Department officials told the families during a meeting in May that no current or former company officials are likely to be prosecuted, as a five-year deadline to bring criminal charges would likely defeat any prosecution effort.
The department’s decision could also have been affected by its previous prosecution efforts.
Prosecutors charged a technical pilot, Mark Forkner, in 2021 with misleading the FAA about things in the test manuals. However, Forkner was acquitted following a brief jury trial.
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