DOJ Takes Aim at Boeing for Violating 2021 Agreement

The Department of Justice has alerted Boeing that the airline manufacturer breached terms of its 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, which saw Boeing protected from criminal prosecution after two 737 Max accidents in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Those accidents occurred on an October 2018 Lion Air 737 Max flight and a March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max flight.

The 2021 agreement stated, “The Company agrees that, effective as of the date it signs this Agreement, in any prosecution that is deferred by this Agreement, it will not dispute the Statement of Facts set forth in this Agreement.” It added:

This Agreement is effective for a period beginning on the date on which the Information is filed and ending three years from that date (the “Term”). The Company agrees, however, that, in the event the Fraud Section determines, in its sole discretion, that the Company has knowingly violated any provision of this Agreement or has failed to completely perform or fulfill each of its obligations under this Agreement, an extension or extensions of the Term may be imposed by the Fraud Section, in its sole discretion, for up to a total additional time period of one year.

Boeing paid $2.5 billion in penalties after the 2021 agreement with a promise it would improve safety and compliance protocols, but families victimized by the two crashes felt that justice had not been done. After recent events, they met with the Biden administration last month to urge ending the 2021 agreement.

Those events included an Alaska Airlines flight losing a door plug in January. In late February, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a report criticizing Boeing that stated it did not find “objective evidence of a foundational commitment to safety that matched Boeing’s descriptions of that objective.” The report also declared that some employees at Boeing were reticent to speak of safety concerns because they feared retaliation.

“For failing to fulfill completely the terms of and obligations under the [deferred prosecution agreement], Boeing is subject to prosecution by the United States for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge,” the Justice Department informed US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, who supervised the 2021 agreement. The Justice Department added that “the government has determined that Boeing breached its obligations by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations,” CNN reported.

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Boeing has until June 13 to respond to the Justice Department action.

“We believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the Department on this issue,” Boeing said in a statement, according to CNN.

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