Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in US probe of fatal 737 MAX
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Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay a fine of $243.6 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into two 737 MAX fatal crashes, the government said in a court filing on Sunday.
The plea deal, which requires a judge's approval, would brand the planemaker a convicted felon in connection with crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia over a five-month period in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
The settlement drew swift criticism from victims' families who wanted Boeing to face a trial and suffer harsher financial consequences.
The Justice Department's (DOJ) push to charge Boeing has deepened an ongoing crisis engulfing Boeing since a separate January in-flight blowout exposed continuing safety and quality issues at the planemaker.
A guilty plea potentially threatens the company's ability to secure lucrative government contracts with the likes of the U.S. Defense Department and NASA, although it could seek waivers.
Boeing became exposed to criminal prosecution after the Justice Department in May found the company violated a 2021 settlement involving the fatal crashes.That's $704K per person killed.
I wonder how much money is going to the victims who perished in the flames of Trump's real estate "fraud" conviction, $450MM.
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I read that the families of the victims, etc. are going to try and persuade the judge to reject the deal. They want somebody at Boeing to be held "criminally liable". My understanding is that the above settlement does not mean that Boeing admits to wrongdoing.
