DOJ says ‘substantial progress’ made toward final plea agreement with Boeing but needs more time

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department said on Thursday that it has made “substantial progress” in finalizing an agreement with Boeing to plead guilty to defrauding the US government, but more time is needed to work out the remaining details.

Earlier this month, Boeing (BA) agreed to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes. The agreement avoids what could have been more serious consequences.

The Justice Department and the plane maker had planned to file the final terms of the agreement with a federal court in Texas on Friday. But, prosecutors said Thursday in a status report that they “will not be able to finalize the agreement by tomorrow” and that the earliest it will happen is next week.

The government wrote in the status report: “Based on the work that remains to be done, and accounting for the corporate formalities attendant to finalizing the plea agreement, the Government expects that the earliest it could file the plea agreement is Wednesday, July 24, 2024.”

The Justice Department added that it “will continue to work expeditiously in an effort to file that day, but if it cannot, it will submit instead a further status report to apprise the Court of the parties’ progress.”

Boeing will pay up to $487 million in fines, a fraction of the $24.8 billion that the families of crash victims had wanted the aircraft maker to pay. The families oppose the deal, the department said in early July.

The agreement stipulates that Boeing will have to operate under the oversight of an independent monitor, a person to be chosen by the government, for a period of three years. But that oversight and the fine did not satisfy the families of victims, according to one of their attorneys.

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