BOEING is facing criminal fraud charges and only has a week to accept the plea deal or take the risk of going to trial.
The US Justice Department pushes the proposed charges after two deadly Boeing 737 Max plane crashes.
On Sunday, family members of the about 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes were told about the plea deal during a video meeting, according to Mark Lindquist, a lawyer representing families who are suing Boeing.
Many were angry because prosecutors wanted to allow Boeing to plead guilty to the three-year-old charge rather than pushing for more charges and a trial.
During the meeting, one family member said prosecutors were gaslighting the victim’s families, while another shouted that no one else could contribute.
Nadia Milleron, of Massachusetts, who lost her 24-year-old daughter Samya Stumo in the 2019 crash, was disappointed by the decision.
"We are upset. They should just prosecute. They are saying we can argue to the judge," she said.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
The new charges come after Boeing paid a $243 million criminal fine but avoided any further charges tied to the crashes in 2021.
It was able to only pay a fine because it agreed to create and push a program that would find and prevent federal fraud law violations.
However, after a chaotic flight in March that had a door blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight, investigators found the company was not keeping its promise to meet anti-fraud requirements.
If Boeing takes the plea deal, major changes would be put in place.
One of those changes reportedly includes appointing a monitor to supervise the company’s compliance with fraud laws.
The monitor would be chosen from three nominees the company puts forward and the Justice Department votes on.
Family members did not like this new idea while on the call, people said.
The plea deal would also take away the ability of Texas Judge Reed O’Connor to increase Boeing’s sentence for a conviction.
However, some of the relatives want to ask the judge to reject the deal if Boeing agrees to it.
If the company rejects it, the Justice Department plans to take it to trial, prosecutors told the families.
A trial could be detrimental to the company and a conviction could harm Boeing’s status as a federal contractor, according to legal experts.
If that happened, federal agencies have the privilege to give waivers to companies that are convicted of felonies to keep them eligible for government contracts.
The lawyers for the victim’s families expect a waiver to be given to Boeing.
An additional feature of the plea deal may include another multimillion-dollar fine similar to the 2021 payment.
’EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING’
Lawyers representing the families of victims have not been shy in their hatred of the plea.
"The underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn’t acknowledge that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people," said Paul Cassell, a lawyer for one of the victim’s families.
"Boeing is not going to be held accountable for that, and they are not going to admit that that happened."
Cassell isn’t the only lawyer who has spoken out and found the deal "outrageous."
Sanjiv Singh, a lawyer for 16 of the families who lost loved ones in the October 2018 Lion Air crash off Indonesia, said the plea deal was "extremely disappointing."
He also said the terms "read to me like a sweetheart deal."
Lindquist said he asked Glenn Leon, the head of the Justice Department’s fraud section if the department would add more charges against Boeing if it turned down the plea deal.
"He wouldn’t commit one way or another," Lindquist said.
The U.S. Sun has contacted Boeing for comment.
