US prosecutors meet with Boeing, crash victims as they consider criminal charges

NEW YORK:

U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing and relatives of victims of the fatal crash as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to criminally charge the planemaker, according to two people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.

Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers Thursday to discuss the government’s conclusion that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the sources said. That agreement, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), had protected him from criminal prosecution for two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

In addition, federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet with the victims’ families on Sunday to inform them of the progress of their investigation, according to the second source. US authorities are working on a “tight schedule”, according to an email sent by the Justice Department and seen by Reuters.

Boeing lawyers from the law firm Kirkland & Ellis presented their case to officials in the deputy attorney general’s office on Thursday, arguing that prosecution would be unwarranted and that there was no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said.

Such calls from companies in the DOJ’s crosshairs are typical during negotiations to resolve a government investigation.

Authorities want to hear from family members before deciding what to do next, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas will attend Sunday’s meeting, it said.

Spokespeople for the DOJ and Boeing declined to comment.

Boeing has previously said it “honored the terms” of the agreement and formally told prosecutors it disagreed with the finding that it violated the agreement.

U.S. prosecutors have recommended to senior Justice Department officials that criminal charges be brought against Boeing after finding that the planemaker violated the 2021 agreement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The two sides are in discussions about a possible resolution of the Justice Department investigation and there is no guarantee that those responsible will bring charges, they said last week.

The proceedings follow the Jan. 5 mid-flight explosion of a control panel on a Boeing plane, just two days before the company’s DPA expired. The incident highlighted Boeing’s ongoing safety and quality problems.

Boeing was close to escaping prosecution for conspiring to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following the 2018-2019 fatal crashes.

Prosecutors had agreed to drop criminal charges on the condition that Boeing review its compliance practices and submit regular reports over a three-year period. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.

In May, authorities determined that the company had violated the agreement, exposing Boeing to legal action. The Justice Department said in a court filing in Texas that the planemaker failed to “design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”