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The US Justice Department has reached a deal, in principle, with Boeing (BA) that will allow the plane maker to avoid prosecution related to two deadly 737 Max crashes. Yahoo Finance Legal Reporter Alexis Keenan reports the details in the video above.
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Well, the U.S. Justice Department has said it reached a deal with Boeing over avoiding prosecution over the company's 737 Max crashes. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan joining us now with more. So, what does this agreement entail?
It entails wrapping up this whole ordeal for the resolution of the litigation that has gone on now since almost 2018, when the first Lion Air 737 Max went down, followed by the Ethiopian Air Max that went down in 2019, to settle the litigation that the Department of Justice has had against Boeing and the agreements that have been in place to defer a criminal trial, because, if you remember, back, now years ago, the DOJ had charged Boeing with the criminal felony of conspiring to defraud the US government based on its representations of its employees to the government in the manufacturing and certification process of the 737 Max. So this is a huge deal, because it would resolve these claims that were reinstated after Boeing breached its prior agreements with the government to comply with what it wanted to do. Now, we don't know exactly what is in this agreement. It is agreement in principle, the DOJ and Boeing are telling the court right now. They say they're still working on finalizing it, but in talking with attorneys who are representing families of the victims of these crashes, as well as the victims family members themselves, they have told me that on a call last week that they participated in with the government's lawyers, that there was a framework that was presented to them. And in this framework, there was Boeing coming up with an additional $444 plus million dollars that will be divided between the victims families. Uh also, a compliance improvements that Boeing will have to pay for, as well as a maximum fine under law that is avail, that is possible to assess against Boeing, as well as an independent compliance consultant. Now, the victims that I talk to, they're not happy with this deal. They want to see Boeing stand the test of a trial. They say that previously under the Biden administration that Boeing had agreed to admit guilt to this this crime that was alleged. They want to see this dispute publicly aired. They feel like they do not have transparency, and with a private deal like this, they feel like they're never going to get answers to why their family members died. Certainly, we would expect that this would be extremely beneficial for Boeing to be able to put this to bed.
All right, Alexis. Thanks for reporting on this breaking situation. Appreciate it.
