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By Mike Spector and Chris Prentice
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing Co (NYSE:) and relatives of victims of the deadly plane crash as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to bring criminal charges against the planemaker, according to two people familiar with the matter. The correspondence was reviewed by Reuters.
Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers on Thursday to discuss the government’s conclusion that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the sources said. That deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), had protected it from criminal prosecution over the two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
Separately, federal prosecutors are scheduled to meet with family members of the victims on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, according to the second person. US officials are working on a “tight timetable,” according to an email sent by the Justice Department and seen by Reuters.
Boeing lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis on Thursday made their case to officials from the deputy attorney general’s office that prosecution would not be warranted and that there was no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said.
Such pleas from companies within the Justice Department’s crosshairs are typical when negotiating to resolve a government investigation.
The email said officials wanted to get input from family members as they considered how to move forward, adding that prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dallas would attend the meeting on Sunday.
Spokesmen for the Justice Department and Boeing declined to comment.
Boeing previously said it had “honored the terms” of the settlement and formally notified prosecutors that it disagreed with the finding that it violated the agreement.
U.S. prosecutors recommended top Justice Department officials file criminal charges against Boeing after finding that the plane maker violated the 2021 settlement, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier.
Both sides said last week they were in discussions about a possible resolution to the Justice Department’s investigation, and there was no guarantee that officials would move forward with charges.
The discussions follow the explosion of a control panel on a Boeing plane during flight on January 5, just two days before the company’s payable aircraft purchase agreement was set to expire. The accident exposed ongoing safety and quality problems at Boeing.
Boeing was on the verge of escaping prosecution on a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stemming from fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the criminal charge as long as Boeing reformed its compliance practices and filed regular reports over three years. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.
In May, officials determined that the company had violated the agreement, exposing Boeing to prosecution. The Justice Department said in a Texas court filing that the planemaker failed to “design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
