Boeing, Ministry of Justice reaches a deal to avoid criminal prosecution due to a fatal 737 Max crash

The US Ministry of Justice announced on Friday that it had concluded a contract with Boeing, which enables the aircraft manufacturer to avoid law enforcement of two accidents of its 737 maximum aircraft, in which 346 people were killed.

The non-insurance agreement would enable Boeing, a great military entrepreneur and top-US exporter, not to be referred to as a criminal. The decision means that Boeing will not be brought to court next month because the family members of Crash victims have been asked for years.

The Ministry of Justice met the family members of Crash victims last week to discuss the potential business.

In a court that registered on Friday, the DOJ said that the government's judgment was that the agreement is a fair and just decision that serves the public interest. “

The agreement “guarantees further accountability and significant advantages of Boeing immediately, while the risk of uncertainty and the legal dispute is brought to the court by the procedure.”

The DOJ said it intended to reject an application for dismissal of the case as soon as the “agreement” in principle is concluded by next week at the latest.

As part of the agreement, Boeing has to “pay or invest or invest or invest more than 1.1 billion US dollars in his registration in front of a federal court in Texas on Friday. This amount includes a criminal fine of $ 487.2 million, although 243.6 million US dollars that were already paid in an earlier agreement would be credited. It also includes 444.5 million US dollars for a new fund for crash victims and 445 million US dollars more for compliance, security and quality programs.

Boeing refused to comment.

For years, the company is trying to complete the two accidents of its best-selling Max aircraft one Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian aircraft flight less than five months later. The Maxes were ground worldwide worldwide almost two years after the second crash, a break that gave the competing Airbus a lead into the recovery of the Covid pandemic.

But families of the victims of the crash criticized earlier agreements as a treasure for Boeing, demanded more accountability of the company and said that his managers should be on trial. In 2022, a former technical chief pilot for Boeing was acquitted due to fraud relapses associated with the development of the Max.

Shortly after the court's publication, some of the victims' family members made an explanation by their lawyer, in which he criticized the deal and said it was a worrying precedent for other large companies.

“This type of non-insurance agreement is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the most fatal corporate crime in the history of US history. My families will object to the Court of Justice and hope to convince the court to reject it,” said the family lawyer, Paul Cassell.

The Ministry of Justice said that relatives of more than 110 crash victims of the government have been communicated that they support the non-contract contract or “the efforts of the department to solve the case before the trial more generally”, however, added that others said that they want the USA to put Boeing on trial, and they would manage to dismiss the deal.

In 2021, the aerospace and space giant achieved a settlement in the last days of the first Trump government that protected it three years before the law enforcement.

After this deal, Boeing agreed to pay a fine of 2.51 billion US dollars in order to avoid law enforcement. This included a criminal punishment of $ 243.6 million, a 500 million dollar fund for family members of crash victims and 1.77 billion US dollars for its airlines. The new fund will be up to date with the 500 million US dollars already set up.

This settlement from 2021 was to be blown out of an almost new 737 max 9 two days after blowing out a door plate, which was operated by Alaska Airlines on January 5, 2024 after the plane had left Boeing's factory without key screws.

Last year US prosecutors said that Boeing had violated the agreement in 2021 and accused the company not to set up and enforce a compliance and ethics program in order to determine violations of US fraud laws.

In July in July, towards the end of the bid administration, Boeing said to be guilty of charges for criminal fraud in a new comparison. A federal judge later rejected the plea and leaned concerns about the requirements of diversity, equity and inclusion for the selection of a company monitor.

As part of this contract of 2024, Boeing would have suspended a fine of up to 487.2 million US dollars, although the Ministry of Justice recommended that Boeing owe Boeing with half of the amount paid in the previous contract.

The United States had accused the Boeing of Conspiracy to cheat the government by misleading the supervisory authorities about the admission of a flight control system to the maximum that was later involved in the two crashes.

“The Boeing employees chose the path of profit to openness by hiding material information from the FAA regarding the operation of its 737 Max aircraft and trying to cover up their deception.”

News that were unveiled in an investigation of the development of the Max showed that the former top boing pilot, which was not found to be guilty in 2022, had been guilty for fraud, which had been guilty of deleting the FAA, which is known as MCAS as MCAS as MCAS, and in a separate email about “Jedi-Mind tricks” dilators to integrate the training material.

Lawyers of the family members of the victims, who have passed the preliminary plea of ​​the past year and set it with a blow to the wrist for the company giant, who recently won a contract worth billion for the construction of the next generation Jet and is working on other military programs, including the issue of two new presidential jets.

Retters work at the scene of a flight accident in Ethiopian airline near Bishoftu or Debre, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019.Mulugeta Ayene | Reuters family members hold photos of crash victims who are lost in two deadly Boeing 737 Max accidents, in which 346 people as Boeing CCEo Dennis Muilenburg before a trade of the Senate, the hearing of science and the transport committee for the safety of aviation and the grounded 737 Max, on the Capitol Hill in Washington, 29., 2019.sara, were killed. Reuters