Exclusive-US prosecutors meeting with Boeing, crash victims as criminal charging decision looms, sources say By Reuters

Written by Mike Spector and Chris Prentice

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing Co and relatives of victims of the deadly Boeing plane crash as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to file charges, two people familiar with the matter and correspondence seen by Reuters said. Criminal charges against the aircraft manufacturer.

Justice Department officials met with Boeing’s attorneys on Thursday to discuss the government’s finding that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the people said. That deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), shielded it from criminal prosecution over two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.

Federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet separately with family members of the victims on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, according to the second source. US officials are working on a “tight timetable,” according to an email sent by the Justice Department and seen by Reuters.

Boeing lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis on Thursday made their case to officials from the deputy attorney general’s office that a prosecution would not be warranted and that there was no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said.

Such appeals by companies under the control of the Justice Department are common when negotiating a resolution to a government investigation.

Officials want to get input from family members while considering how to move forward, the email said. He added that prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Section and the US Attorney’s Office in Dallas will attend the meeting on Sunday.

Spokesmen for the Justice Department and Boeing declined to comment.

Boeing had previously said it had “honored the terms” of the settlement and formally notified plaintiffs that it disagreed with the finding that it had violated the agreement.

U.S. prosecutors recommended top Justice Department officials file criminal charges against Boeing after finding that the plane maker violated the 2021 settlement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier.

They said last week that the two sides were in discussions about a possible resolution to the Justice Department investigation, and there was no guarantee that officials would move forward with charges.

The discussions follow the explosion of a control panel on a Boeing plane during flight on January 5, just two days before the company’s payable aircraft purchase agreement expired. The accident exposed ongoing safety and quality problems at Boeing.

Boeing was on the verge of escaping prosecution on criminal charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stemming from fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Prosecutors had agreed to drop the criminal charge on the condition that Boeing reform 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, officials determined that the company had violated the agreement, exposing Boeing to prosecution. The Justice Department said in a Texas lawsuit 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.”