Boeing Could Face Criminal Prosecution Over 737 MAX Crashes: Justice Department

Authorized by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of Justice determined on May 14 that Boeing violated a deferred prosecution agreement that allowed the airspace company to evade critical charges after 2 cracks of its 737 MAX jet that killed everyone on board.

The logo for Boeing apps on a screen above a trading post on the level of the fresh York Stock Exchange on July 13, 2021. (Richard Drew/AP)

Justice Department concerns delivered the news to a national justice on May 14 after hosting a closed-door gathering with the families of the victims of the 2018 and 2019 crashes on April 24. The agency now has until July 7 to decide who it will file criminal charges against Boeing, during which time it will tell the court how it plans to proceed, the Justice Department said.

Glenn Leon, the head of the Justice Department’s fraud section, said in a letter that the Aerospace company failed to implement measures to prevent it from moving afoul of national anti-fraud laws, which is simply a vibration of its 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.

The Justice Department said it could prosecute the company “for any national criminal revolution of which the United States has knowledge,” including a fraud charge that Boeing Hoped to side step with its $2.5 billion settlement with the U.S. government.

The government did not say who it would decision forward with prosecuting Boeing, 1 of its biggest aerospace contractors.

“The Government is determining how it will happen in this matter,” the Justice Department said in a court document.

The 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crashes active a fresh flight-control strategy that Boeing added to the jet without notifying airlines or their pilots, according to investments. The aerospace company then discounted the system’s import and failed to overhaul its application until after the second crash caused further accidents.

The Justice Department then invested Boeing before setting up the case with a deferred prosecution agreement on Jan. 7, 2021. The department agreed not to prosecute for the charge of defracing the government in misleading the regulators who applied the 737 MAX after closed-door negotiations with Boeing.

Instead, Boeing paid a full of $2.5 billion in settlement fees. That included close $1.8 billion to airlines who 737 MAX jets were grounded, a $500 million fund for compensating victims, and a $243.6 million fine to the U.S. Government.

“The tragic crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of 1 of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers,” Acting Assistant lawyer General David P. Burns of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in 2021.

“Boeing’s employees choose the way of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerting the operation of its 737 Max plane and generating in an effort to cover up their decision.”

U.S. lawyer Erin Nealy Cox, for the Northern territory of Texas, was besides featured in the Justice Department’s 2021 message on the Boeing agreement.

“The missionary statements, half-truths, and omissions communicated by Boeing employees to the FAA impeded the government’s ability to guarantee the safety of the flying public,” she said.

The agreement between Boeing and the U.S. Government was set to expire on Jan. 7, 2 days after a mid-air blowout of a door panel on an Alaskan Airlines flight, besides feature a 737 MAX. That incidental trigged the Justice Department’s 2024 investment into whother Boeing violated the 2021 settlement.

As a consequence of the various crashes and residents, Boeing has faced multiple civilian lawsuits, legislature and home investments, and increased public scrutiny of its business practices.

Paul Cassell, the lawyer representing the 737 MAX crash victims’ families, said in late April that he was welcomed the Justice Department was giving Boeing “preferential treatment” after the April 24 closed-door gathering with the agency younged no circumstantial updates on its investment.

“We don’t realize how it could possibly be in the public interest to dismiss the charges and avoid a trial that could shed light on so many of the safety issues that proceed to surf respecting the 737 Max that’s made by Boeing,” he told The Epoch Times.

The Associated Press requested to this report.