Boeing to pay $1.1B, avoid prosecution in DOJ deal over deadly 737 Max crashes
Boeing will shell out more than $1 billion but avoided prosecution over two crashes involving its 737 Max planes that killed 346 people, the Justice Department said Friday The non-prosecution agreement allows the aerospace giant to avoid being branded a convicted felon and was harshly criticized by many families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the Boeing the planemaker to trial.A lawyer for family members and two US senators had urged the Justice Department not to abandon its prosecution, but the government quickly rejected the requests.“This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in US history.
My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,” said Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing many of the families.Boeing agreed to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim on top of an additional $243.6 million fine.The Justice Department expects to file the written agreement with Boeing by the end of next week. Boeing will no longer face oversight by an independent monitor under the agreement.Boeing will pay in total over $1.1 billion including the fine and compensation to families and over $455 million to strengthen the company’s compliance, safety, and quality programs, the Justice Department said.“Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics program and retain an independent compliance consultant,” the department said Friday.“We are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits.”Boeing did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.Its stock ticked down 0.5% Friday.
The planemaker and major military contractor had been scheduled to face trial on June 23 over a Lion Air flight that crashed in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight that went down just a few months ...