Prosecutors File Boeing's Plea Deal To Resolve Felony Fraud Charge Tied To 737 Max Crashes

The Justice Department submitted an agreement with Boeing on Wednesday in which the aerospace giant will plead guilty to a fraud charge for misleading U.S. regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people.

The detailed plea agreement was filed in federal district court in Texas. The American aerospace company and the Justice Department reached a deal on the guilty plea and the agreement’s broad terms earlier this month.

The finalized version states Boeing admitted that through its employees, it made an agreement “by dishonest means” to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration group that evaluated the 737 Max. Because of Boeing’s deception, the FAA had “incomplete and inaccurate information” about the plane’s flight-control software and how much training pilots would need for it, the plea agreement says.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor can accept the agreement and the sentence worked out between Boeing and prosecutors, or he could reject it, which likely would lead to new negotiations between the company and the Justice Department.

The deal calls for the appointment of an independent compliance monitor, three years of probation and a $243.6 million fine. It also requires Boeing to invest at least $455 million “in its compliance, quality, and safety programs.”

Boeing was accused of misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about aspects of the Max before the agency certified the plane for flight. Boeing did not tell airlines and pilots about the new software system, called MCAS, that could turn the plane’s nose down without input from pilots if a sensor detected that the plane might go into an aerodynamic stall.

Max planes crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in