Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun leaves after testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Investigations Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 18, 2024 Aims to review “Boeing’s broken safety culture.”
Samuel Kunlun | AFP | Getty Images
U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing Co and relatives of victims of fatal crashes to decide whether to prosecute the plane maker as the Justice Department’s July 7 deadline approaches, according to two people familiar with the matter and letters reviewed by Reuters. File criminal charges.
Justice Department officials met with Boeing Co. attorneys on Thursday to discuss the government’s findings that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the Justice Department, one of the sources said. The agreement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), shields it from criminal prosecution in two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Separately, federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet with the victims’ families on Sunday to update them on the investigation, a second person said. U.S. officials are working on an “aggressive timetable,” according to an email sent by the U.S. Justice Department and reviewed by Reuters.
Boeing lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP presented their case to officials with the deputy attorney general’s office on Thursday, saying the prosecution was without merit and that tearing up the 2021 deal was unnecessary, one of the people said.
Such appeals are common for companies targeted by the Justice Department as they negotiate to resolve government investigations.
Officials want input from family members as they consider how to proceed, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas will attend Sunday’s meeting, the report said.
Spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing declined to comment.
Boeing has previously said it was “complying with the terms of the settlement” and formally told prosecutors it disagreed with the finding that it violated the agreement.
Two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters that U.S. prosecutors have recommended criminal charges against Boeing to senior Justice Department officials after finding that the company violated a 2021 settlement agreement.
They said last week that the two sides were discussing possible resolutions to the Justice Department investigation but there was no guarantee officials would move forward with bringing charges.
The review comes after a panel exploded on a Boeing aircraft mid-flight on January 5, just two days before the company’s DPA expired. The incident exposed ongoing safety and quality issues at Boeing.
Boeing is expected to escape prosecution after being accused of conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in connection with fatal crashes in 2018-2019.
Prosecutors agreed that the criminal charges could be dropped as long as Boeing overhauls its compliance practices and submits regular reports within three years. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to resolve the investigation.
In May, officials determined the company violated the agreement, leading to Boeing facing prosecution. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a Texas court filing that the plane maker failed to “design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.” Behavior”.
