Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners after the government determined the company violated an agreement that had protected it from prosecution for more than three years, the Justice Department said Sunday night.
Federal prosecutors gave Boeing the choice this week of entering a guilty plea and paying a fine as part of its sentence or facing a trial on the felony criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Prosecutors accused the American aerospace giant of deceiving regulators who approved the airplane and pilot-training requirements for it.
The plea deal, which still must receive the approval of a federal judge to take effect, calls for Boeing to pay an additional $243.6 million fine. That was the same amount it paid under the 2021 settlement that the Justice Department said the company breached. An independent monitor would be named to oversee Boeing’s safety and quality procedures for three years.
The plea deal covers only wrongdoing by Boeing before the crashes, which killed all 346 passengers and crew members aboard two new Max jets. It does not give Boeing immunity for other incidents, including a panel that blew off a Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January, a Justice Department official said.
“In a major win for the DOJ Boeing has agreed to a plea deal to avoid a criminal trial. As part of the deal Boeing agreed to a slap on the wrist after which they will be legally required to admit to being very naughty before they can resume committing crimes.”
If you were I were to commit criminal fraud, we would go to prison. Why is it that a corporation, which is also considered to be a person, does not need to do something as life-altering?
It’s insane. Of course we can’t just jail a corporation and just shutting them down forcibly would cause more problems than it solves, but really that fine needs to be at least 50 times as high. Probably 100 times. Something that hurts, a lot. Not enough to outright bankrupt them, but enough to do that if it happens again any time soon. Their yearly revenue is 72 billion. This is the equivalent of someone making 50k a year paying a $200 fine for gross negligience that killed people. What the fuck?
Jail the executives and/or apply the fine to them. They are ultimately the ones that pushed this culture to happen, and as they say “the buck stops here”.
Wishful thinking, I know. It would never happen in real life.
I don’t think a fine is an appropriate result. Any amount of money paid to the government is not going to get those people back, it’s not going to fix Boeing’s workplace culture, it’s just going to drive them to cut more corners to recoup the cost of the fine.
Clearly, they can’t be trusted to run their own QC operation in an industry where a few missed bolts leads to the violent deaths of hundreds of people. The “punishment” should be the creation of a QC and safety team that is accountable to the American people, which is paid for directly by Boeing. This team is financially liable for Boeing’s mistakes, and picks a fee based on how well boeing is passing QCs and inspections. Most importantly, Boeing’s C-suite is not allowed to privately communicate with this team.
Accountability should be the “punishment.”
