By Mike Spector and Chris Prentice
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing (NYSE:) and family members of the fatal crash victims as a July 7 deadline approaches for the Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute the plane maker, according to reports two people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.
Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers on Thursday to discuss the government’s finding that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the sources said. That deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), would have shielded it from criminal charges following two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
In addition, federal prosecutors will meet with the victims’ relatives on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, the second person said. U.S. officials are working on a “tight timeline,” according to an email sent by the DOJ and reviewed by Reuters.
Boeing’s lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis presented their case Thursday to officials in the deputy attorney general’s office that a prosecution would not be warranted and that there is no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said.
Such calls from companies in the DOJ’s crosshairs are typical in negotiations to resolve a government investigation.
Officials want input from family members as they consider how to proceed, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s criminal fraud division and the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas will attend the meeting Sunday, the report said.
Spokespeople for the DOJ and Boeing declined to comment.
Boeing has previously said it has complied with the terms of the settlement and formally notified prosecutors that it disagrees with the finding that it breached the agreement.
U.S. prosecutors have recommended that senior Justice Department officials pursue criminal charges against Boeing after finding the planemaker violated the 2021 settlement, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.
The two sides are in discussions about a possible resolution to the Justice Department investigation and there is no guarantee officials will move forward with the charges, they said last week.
The deliberations follow a Jan. 5 panel explosion during the flight of a Boeing plane, just two days before the company’s DPA expired. The incident exposed ongoing safety and quality problems at Boeing.
Boeing was close to escaping prosecution on a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a result of the deadly 2018-2019 crashes.
Prosecutors had agreed to drop a criminal charge as long as Boeing overhauled its compliance practices and filed regular reports for a three-year period. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation.
In May, officials determined the company had breached the agreement, leaving Boeing open to prosecution. The DOJ said in a Texas lawsuit that the aircraft maker had failed “to design, implement and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws in its operations.”
