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Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge related to the 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people.
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The company will pay a criminal fine of $243.6m and invest $455m in compliance and safety programs.
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Families of the victims have criticized the deal as a “sweetheart deal” that allows Boeing to avoid full responsibility for the deaths.
Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge related to the 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people. The company will pay a criminal fine of $243.6m and invest $455m in compliance and safety programs. This deal comes after the US Department of Justice found that Boeing had violated a previous agreement meant to reform the company after the crashes.
The families of the victims have criticized the deal as a “sweetheart deal” that allows Boeing to avoid full responsibility for the deaths. They had been pushing for a criminal trial, which would have held the company and its executives accountable for the crashes. The deal has been criticized as a “miscarriage of justice” and an “atrocious abomination”.
Boeing’s decision to plead guilty is a significant black mark for the company, which is a prominent military contractor for the US government. The criminal record may affect the company’s contracting business, although it is not clear how. The company has also agreed to submit to oversight by an independent monitor for three years.
