The Justice Department plans to allow Boeing to avoid a criminal trial if it agrees to plead guilty to fraud charges stemming from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max more than five years ago, according to two lawyers for the families of crash victims.
Federal officials shared details of the offer on a call with the families Sunday afternoon and said the Justice Department had not yet brought a deal to Boeing, the lawyers, Paul G. According to Kessel and Mark Lindquist.
The terms include fines of about $244 million, new investment in safety improvements, three years of external monitor scrutiny and meetings between Boeing’s board and victims’ families, said Mr. Cassel, the University of Utah law professor.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Boeing declined to comment.
Mr. Cassel, who represents more than a dozen families, said he and the families found the deal “outrageous” and fell far short of what they had asked for. He described the offer as a “sweetheart plea deal” because it would not force Boeing to accept blame for the deaths of 346 people who died in crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in late 2018 and early 2019.
“The families will strongly object to this plea deal,” Mr. Cassel said in a statement. “The memory of the 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this.”
The Justice Department said it planned to notify Boeing of its offer after the call, Mr. Cassell said.
The terms reportedly offered to Boeing would update a 2021 settlement that resolved a criminal indictment accusing the aerospace giant of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration. The new agreement would require Boeing to plead guilty to that charge, according to lawyers.
The 2021 criminal indictment centered on two employees who were accused of withholding information from the FAA about changes to the software, known as MCAS, that was later involved in the crash.
Under the previous deal, the company agreed to pay $500 million to the victims’ families. It also agreed to pay more than $1.7 billion to its customers because they were unable to take delivery of the Max during a 20-month global ban on the jet.
In May, the Justice Department found that Boeing breached the contract by failing to prevent subsequent violations of US anti-fraud laws at its operations. In a statement at the time, Boeing said it believed it had honored the terms of the previous agreement.
In weighing how to punish Boeing for the crash, the Justice Department faced competing pressures to hold Boeing accountable for its failures without harming the company, which plays a vital role in the nation’s economy and national security.
The 2021 settlement angered the families of the crash victims, who have long argued that Boeing and its executives should face further consequences, including a public trial. Many of those families have reached civil settlements with the company, though a handful are pursuing civil damages trials that are set to begin later this year.
In 2022, a jury in Texas convicted former Boeing technical pilot, Mark A. Forkner was acquitted of defrauding two of the company’s customers, in the only criminal case the federal government brought against a person connected to the crash.
The Justice Department has also opened a criminal investigation into Boeing over the January flight in which the panel downed a Max Jet operated by Alaska Airlines. No major injuries were reported, but the incident reignited concerns among lawmakers and the public about the quality of Boeing jets.
Mark Walker Contribution report.