Sanjiv Singh, who represents 16 families in the case, labeled the plea offer “extremely disappointing” and added that the terms read “like a sweetheart deal.”
The US Department of Justice is reportedly offering a plea deal to Boeing for the company to plead guilty to fraud in a case where two Max 737 jets crashed, killing 346 people. The crashes in question took place in 2018 and 2019. One lawyer representing the families of the victims has called it a "sweetheart deal."
According to the Associated Press, Boeing must accept or reject the offer by the end of the week. The deal would include the company agreeing to have an independent monitor track Boeing’s compliance with anti-fraud laws. The crashes took place in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019.
The case stems from the DOJ concluding that Boeing violated an agreement that was set up in order to resolve a 2021 charge of conspiracy to defraud the federal government connected to the crashes. Prosecutors had argued in the 2021 case that the company misled officials who approved the 737 Max and set pilot training requirements that were needed to fly the aircraft. Boeing had blamed two former pilots who had made instructions for flying the planes.
The DOJ told the families of two crashes, one in 2018 and one in 2019, about the plea deal over a video call. The families want to take Boeing to criminal court over the actions and for the company to pay a fine of $24.8 billion. Family members expressed outrage at the deal during the meeting and advocated for additional charges and a criminal trial.
One lawyer for the families, Mark Lindquist, said in a statement obtained by The Post Millennial, “The Max 9 door plug blowout, among other incidents, demonstrates the continuing safety issues at Boeing.”
He added, “In all of our cases against Boeing, I'm aiming not just for justice and accountability, but for Boeing to get its act together.”
Prosecutors reportedly told the families that if the aerospace giant rejects the deal, the DOJ will seek to take the matter to trial. A conviction in the case could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor. Some of the families plan to ask that the Texas judge in the case reject the plea deal if Boeing agrees to it.
“The underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn’t acknowledge that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” lawyer Paul Cassell said. He is representing some of the families in the case.
Sanjiv Singh, who represents 16 families in the case, labeled the plea offer “extremely disappointing” and he added that the terms read "like a sweetheart deal.”
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