WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss a criminal fraud charge against Boeing stemming from two fatal 737 MAX plane crashes that killed 346 people, saying it had reached agreement with the planemaker.
Under the deal, Boeing will avoid being branded a convicted felon, but it has 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.
Boeing, which last year had agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal, will pay $1.1 billion in total, 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.
The agreement has been harshly criticized by many families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take Boeing to trial. A lawyer for family members and two U.S. senators had urged the Justice Department not to abandon its prosecution and some lawyers have vowed to challenge the deal.
The government said the deal "secures meaningful accountability, delivers substantial and immediate public benefits, and brings finality to a difficult and complex case whose outcome would otherwise be uncertain."
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg signed the agreement on Thursday, finalizing a deal the Justice Department said last week it had struck in principle.
The Justice Department said the vast majority of the families of the 346 people killed in the crashes have settled civil suits with Boeing and collectively they have been "paid several billion dollars."
“Boeing is committed to complying with its obligations under the resolution reached today, which include a substantial additional fine and commitments to further institutional improvements and investments," the company said Thursday.
Boeing will no longer face oversight by an independent monitor under the agreement, but will hire a compliance consultant. As a condition of the deal, Boeing's board of directors will be required to meet with the families.
Reuters first reported on May 16 that Boeing had reached a tentative nonprosecution agreement with the government.
The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial date the planemaker faces on a charge it misled U.S. regulators about a crucial flight control system on the 737 MAX, its best-selling jet.
Boeing in July had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia spanning 2018 and 2019.
In 2023, Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas said "Boeing's crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history."
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