Boeing accepts a plea deal to avoid a criminal trial over 737 Max crashes, Justice Department says
Boeing accepts a plea deal to avoid a criminal trial over 737 Max crashes, Justice Department says
The Justice Department says Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners.
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.
They did it once, then did it again and not only is it still just a fine, the fine didn't even go up. Given inflation since then, the fine actually went down in real terms.
That'll teach them for sure! /s
"You have to put over $400 million of your own money and launder it back around into the safety department of your own company"
That'll teach em.
Boeing made $76B in revenue in 2023. This is slightly more than 1 day's revenue for them ($210M / day) or a bit more than 10 days profit for them ($21M / day). They will keep doing what they're doing, but increase their spending on a PR campaign to improve their public image.
They will keep doing what they’re doing
Wrong.
This plea deal helps them quantify the cost of safety lapses, which they didn't have before. Now they know that they'll only get fined a tiny bit, they know that it'll be worth it to cut further corners if that helps them sell maybe 5-10 more planes in total.
Just part of the cost of doing business.
Exactly. This is like if you charged the average person $1 for causing a major motorway accident.
It's a joke of a fine in the face of Boeing's profits - basically telling them they can get away with severe and wreckless disregard for human life in return for just over a week's profits.
If my maths is right that works out to just over 48 minutes of profit per person killed...
I rolled through a stop sign at 3mph several months ago and have to pay ~$500 in fees/traffic school. That’s a much higher hit to me percentage wise as Boeing who literally killed hundreds of people with their shitty planes. Our rules are stupid and broken.
“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?
I suggest a federal agency become lone shareholder and criminal charges be filed against board members
So a bribe so nobody goes to jail...
Pretty much.
America really loves protecting those upper management from taking responsibility!
A bribe with someone else's money.
My god is the DOJ going to pay the bar tab for Boeing's team too?
They killed hundreds of people by lying and then got caught lying some more. Over and over we're told that if there was ever any actual criminality it would pierce the corporate veil. So either that was bullshit or the DOJ is incompetent or unwilling to go after these murderers the same way they do other organized crime.
It's time to make the existence of Corporations a campaign issue. If they aren't doing anything wrong then they don't need the shield right?
I liked it better when large corps could go dark practically overnight, e.g. Enron. Andersen, et al.
And then the concept of "too big to fail" was born.
More specifically, the government got Enron but the PR campaign waged by corporate lobbyists is directly responsible for the milquetoast prosecutions since then. They actually got a majority of Americans to believe the government was at fault for people losing their jobs and pensions. The pensions that were already embezzled. And the jobs that were already getting cut because the embezzling was starting in on the corporation.
What a sick joke our DOJ is.
And the mysterious deaths of the whistleblowers? Did they get to plead that away too?
Well that's fine. It's not as if anyone died.
Oh wait...
This is an absolute god damn failure. Merrick Garland is a spineless, neutered, impotent, milquetoast, coward and that's exactly how history should remember him.
Pleading to avoid criminal charges regarding cases where people died should not be a thing...
Corporations are not people when it's convenient
"Sometimes doing what's right isn't as important as doing what's profitable"
Are we filing charges against sock puppets named Boeing? Who is the man in charge? Over three hundred people are dead. Those families deserve justice, not whatever this is.
In the US the corporation acts as a legal shield, except in criminal cases. The fact that the DOJ hasn't ripped that shield away and stuck a probe up their ass tells you everything you need to know about how true my first sentence is. Despite hearing it ad nauseum every time something like the Ohio train crash happens.
No more too big to fail companies
Damn, I wish I could commit felony fraud and get off with just a fine.
Although, doesn't the government usually prefer to not work with convicted felons? Does this mean they'll prefer other companies for contracts, etc.?
And pay a fine of 1 day's salary.
The system is broken
The system is working perfectly as intended.
Boeing killed John Barnett
Saw it coming. This article could almost be a re post
The people who need to be held accountable, won't be. They'll continue to live in lavish luxury without any repercussions.
It's a big club, and you ain't in it.
flatterydefense contracts will get you everywhere!Now what. They going to fake jail like Orange Hitler.
So basically they will say sowwy, they get a wrist slap, and then we coke party like it's 2099?
So, same fine as 3 years ago? Can it be bigger since it didn't seem to move the needle?