To avoid prosecution, Boeing reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to a report by Reuters, on May 23rd local time, the US Department of Justice announced that it had reached a principled agreement with Boeing, allowing Boeing to avoid being prosecuted for the crashes of two 737 MAX aircraft which caused a total of 346 deaths.

This agreement allows Boeing to avoid being classified as a "felon," a move that has drawn severe criticism from many families of the victims. The victim's families have urged prosecutors to bring Boeing to court, and lawyers and two U.S. senators previously called on the Department of Justice not to abandon prosecution, but the government quickly rejected these requests.

Paul Cassell, a lawyer representing numerous victim's families, said, "This non-prosecution agreement is unprecedented and clearly does not apply to the deadliest corporate crime in American history. We will oppose it and hope to persuade the court to reject this agreement."

On June 25th, 2024, in Renton, USA, Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are undergoing assembly at the factory. Bloomberg News

Under the agreement, Boeing has agreed to pay an additional $444.5 million to the families of the crash victims, which will be evenly distributed among each victim. In addition, Boeing must also pay a fine of $243.6 million. The US Department of Justice expects to sign a written agreement with Boeing before next weekend, and according to the agreement, Boeing will no longer be subject to oversight by an independent monitoring body.

The US Department of Justice stated that Boeing's total expenditure will exceed $1.1 billion, including fines, compensation to families, and $455 million used to enhance the company's compliance, safety, and quality programs.

The US Department of Justice said on the same day, "Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics programs and hire an independent compliance advisor. We believe this solution is the fairest outcome with practical benefits."

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Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507843753189622324/

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