Business

US seeks Boeing plea deal, lawyers say

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What happened

U.S. prosecutors are giving Boeing a week to accept a plea deal tied to a pair of deadly 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Under its terms, Boeing would plead guilty to one fraud-conspiracy felony, hire an outside safety compliance monitor, and pay an additional $244 million fine, according to lawyers for families of crash victims briefed Sunday by the Justice Department. The plea offer supersedes a delayed prosecution agreement Boeing signed in early 2021, a "form of corporate probation" lasting three years, The Wall Street Journal said. Federal prosecutors said in May that Boeing had violated its requirements. "Many family members feel like it's a sweetheart deal, but it's a serious step up in accountability from the original" settlement, attorney Mark Lindquist told the Journal.

Victims' families wanted Boeing to pay $24.8 billion and its top executives to face prosecution, a court filing last week said. If Boeing rejects the terms, "prosecutors said they will take the case to trial," The Washington Post said. If it pleads guilty, that "could complicate its ability to receive government contracts unless it gets a waiver."