Lawyers say US wants Boeing to admit to fraud over fatal crashes

The U.S. Department of Justice intends to offer that Boeing plead guilty to fraud in connection with two fatal 737 Max crashes, according to two people who discussed the offer in detail from federal prosecutors on Sunday.

Boeing will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the aerospace giant agreeing to an independent monitor to oversee compliance with anti-fraud rules, they said.

The Justice Department informed relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the settlement offer during a video conference, according to Mark Lindquist, one of the lawyers representing the families suing Boeing, and another person who heard the conversation with prosecutors.

During the meeting, family members expressed anger that prosecutors wanted to give Boeing a chance to plead guilty to three-year-old charges rather than seeking additional charges and a trial. One of them said that prosecutors gaslighted families; another shouted at them for several minutes when given the chance to speak.

“We are nervous. They should just file a criminal case,” said Massachusetts resident Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two 737 Max crashes. “They say we can argue in front of a judge.”

FILE – A plane flies over a sign at Boeing Co.’s newly expanded 737 delivery center, Oct. 19, 2015, at Boeing Field in Seattle. The U.S. Justice Department plans to propose that Boeing plead guilty to fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving 737 Max jets, according to two people who heard federal prosecutors detail the offer Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ted S. Warren

Prosecutors told the families that if Boeing rejected the settlement offer, the Justice Department would go to court on the matter, they said.

Boeing declined to comment.

The meeting came weeks after prosecutors told a federal judge that the U.S. aerospace giant had breached a January 2021 agreement that shielded Boeing from criminal prosecution over the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

A conviction could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor, some legal experts say. The company has large contracts with the Pentagon and NASA.