07/08/2024 – 6:11
Boeing announced on Monday (8) that it had reached an agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) in the criminal case over the accidents of two 737 MAX planes in 2018 and 2019, in which 346 people died.
“We have reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a resolution with the Department of Justice,” Boeing said in a statement sent to AFP.
The settlement was announced after prosecutors concluded that Boeing violated an earlier agreement over the crashes, which occurred in Ethiopia and Indonesia.
According to court documents filed in Texas on Sunday, the company agreed to plead guilty to “conspiracy to defraud the United States” during the certification of the MAX planes.
Boeing will be fined under the agreement and must invest at least $455 million (R$2.4 billion) in “compliance and safety programs.”
Compensation to the victims’ relatives will be determined by the court.
The DoJ ruled in May that the company ignored a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) by failing to meet requirements to improve its ethics and compliance programs after the accidents.
The victims’ families said they were “very disappointed” with the settlement between Boeing and the DoJ, said an attorney at Clifford Law, which is representing the plaintiffs.
“Over the past five years, ever more evidence has been presented that demonstrates that Boeing’s culture of putting profits above safety has not changed. This plea agreement only furthers that corporate objective,” said attorney Robert A. Clifford.
The families will ask the court to reject the settlement at the next hearing, the legal team said.
The original DPA settlement was announced in January 2021, over allegations that Boeing knowingly defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration during the certification of the MAX.
The agreement required Boeing to pay $2.5 billion (R$13.6 billion at the current exchange rate) in fines and restitution in exchange for criminal immunity.
The three-year probation was due to expire this year. But in January, Boeing was again in crisis when an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX plane was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel broke off in mid-flight.
In a letter sent to the court on May 14, DoJ officials said Boeing violated its obligations under the DPA by “failing to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
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