DOJ Defends Boeing Plea Deal After Victims’ Families Object

(Bloomberg) — The US Justice Department defended its settlement with Boeing Co. after family members of 737 Max crash victims said the government should have required larger financial penalties and an outside monitor should be court-appointed.
The government said in a legal filing Wednesday it has exerted the maximum possible punishment under the circumstances. The filing was in response to a request from families that a Texas federal judge reject the deal.
“Ultimately, the government’s decision to enter into this Agreement is dictated by what it can prove in court and what it cannot,” according to the filing.
Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy in connection with crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. As part of the deal, which requires the judge’s approval, Boeing would install an independent corporate monitor for three years and spend at least $455 million to bolster its compliance and safety programs.
Boeing also faces a fine of at least $243.6 million. That matches the amount it paid under a 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement that the Justice Department later determined the company had violated.
Families of the victims said the agreement doesn’t adequately hold Boeing to account for the deaths and the judge should be the one to select the company’s monitor, rather than the Justice Department with input from Boeing. The families also argued that Boeing should face “significantly larger and more meaningful” financial penalties than outlined in the deal.
“The government has the deepest respect for the victims and their passionate advocacy in this matter,” the Justice Department said in the filing. “Yet in the end, after years of investigation, the government has not found the one thing that underlies the families’ most passionate objections to the proposed resolution: evidence that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud caused the deaths of their loved ones.”
US District Judge Reed O’Connor, who is overseeing the case, has yet to decide if he’ll hold a hearing on the plea deal.
The case is US v. Boeing, 21-cr-005, US District Court, Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth).
(Updates with excerpts from filing.)
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