ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. — The Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that Boeing violated a "deferred prosecution agreement" that allowed the company to avoid criminal prosecution after two deadly crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft, the agency told a federal judge on Tuesday, May 14.
It is now up to the DOJ to weigh whether to file charges against the aircraft maker. Prosecutors will tell the court no later than July 7 how they plan to proceed, the Department of Justice said.
Boeing failed to make changes to prevent it from violating federal anti-fraud laws, which was a condition of the 2021 agreement, Glenn Leon, the head of the fraud section of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a letter.
In a statement, Boeing confirmed it received the letter from the DOJ.
“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. "As we do so, we will engage with the Department with the utmost transparency, as we have throughout the entire term of the agreement, including in response to their questions following the Alaska Airlines 1282 accident.”
Under the agreement, Boeing was expected to pay $2.5 billion toward fines, compensation payments to airline customers and a crash-victim beneficiaries fund. It would also strengthen its compliance program, agree to enhanced compliance program reporting requirements and continue to cooperate with fraud investigators in future proceedings.
The agreement stipulated that Boeing must avoid committing a felony offense in order to avoid charges related to the 2018 and 2019 crashes, which killed 346 people - Boeing employees were found to have lied to federal regulators about a flight control system on the 737 Max 8 jet, which was implicated in causing both crashes. The agreement was met with outcry from the families of the victims, who said their voices were left out of the DOJ's decision.
However, in early January, a door plug ripped away from a 737 Max jet about 7 minutes into a flight. The National Transportation Safety Board found that bolts, which were supposed to secure the door plug to the fuselage, were left off after maintenance work performed at the company's Renton factory. The DOJ then opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
The May 14 determination means that Boeing could be prosecuted “for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge,” including the charge of fraud that the company hoped to avoid with the $2.5 billion settlement, the Justice Department said.
It is not clear whether the government will prosecute the manufacturing giant.
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