The U.S. Justice Department said Friday it has reached a tentative agreement with Boeing that would let the company avoid prosecution in a fraud case tied to two deadly 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.
The agreement allows Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon and is a blow to families who lost relatives in the crashes and had pressed prosecutors to take the U.S. planemaker to trial. A lawyer for family members and two U.S. senators had urged the Justice Department not to abandon its prosecution, but the government quickly rejected the requests.
Boeing agreed to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim on top of an additional $243.6 million fine.
The Justice Department expects to file the written agreement with Boeing by the end of next week. Boeing will no longer face oversight by an independent monitor under the agreement.
Boeing will pay in total over $1.1 billion, including the fine and compensation to families and over $455 million to strengthen the company’s compliance, safety, and quality programs, the Justice Department said.
"Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics program and retain an independent compliance consultant," the department said Friday. "We are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits."
Boeing did not immediately comment.
Reuters first reported on May 16 that Boeing had reached a tentative nonprosecution agreement with the government.
The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial date the planemaker faces on a charge it misled U.S. regulators about a crucial flight control system on the 737 MAX, its best-selling jet.
Boeing in July had agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia spanning 2018 and 2019, pay a fine of up to $487.2 million and face three years of independent oversight.
Boeing no longer will plead guilty, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a meeting last week. The company's posture changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members.
Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas said in 2023 that "Boeing's crime may properly be considered the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history."
Boeing has faced enhanced scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration since January 2024, when a new MAX 9 missing four key bolts suffered a mid-air emergency losing a door plug. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes per month.
DOJ officials last year found Boeing had violated a 2021 agreement, reached during the Trump administration's final days, that had shielded the planemaker from prosecution.
That conclusion followed the January 2024 in-flight emergency during an Alaska Airlines' flight. As a result, DOJ officials decided to reopen the older fatal crashes case and negotiate a plea agreement with Boeing. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft)
