The Department of Justice (DOJ) told a federal judge Tuesday that Boeing violated a settlement that let it escape criminal prosecution following the two crashes of 737 Max aircraft a few years ago.
The DOJ now has to figure out if it will file charges against the aviation giant, according to The Associated Press. According to the department, prosecutors will let the court know of their plans by early July.
It said Boeing had breached the deal to evade prosecution âby failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.â
The finding that Boeing violated the terms of the settlement by not making the changes could result in the company being prosecuted âfor any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge,â the DOJ said.
In January 2021, the DOJ announced that Boeing signed the deferred prosecution agreement âto resolve a criminal charge related to a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administrationâs Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with the FAA AEGâs evaluation of Boeingâs 737 Max airplane.â
US Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said then that âmisleading statements, half-truths, and omissions communicated by Boeing employees to the FAA impeded the governmentâs ability to ensure the safety of the flying public.â
The nonprofit Foundation for Aviation Safety, which is led by former Boeing employee Ed Pierson, recently accused Boeing of violating the deferred prosecution agreement. Pierson alleged in a December 2023 court filing that âBoeing has deliberately provided false, incomplete, and misleading information to the FAA, the flying public, airline customers, regulators, and investors.â
Boeing will probably start crying that, if they are prosecuted âbazillions of American jobs will be destroyedâ. It seems that the only time âJCsâ think of their employees as anything other than a cost to be minimized is when they hold their employees hostage to escape the law, or market realities.
The employeesâ jobs will be fine. Multiple current AND former management personnel will face going to jail because they did not follow the agreement with the DOJ.
The narrative for the last 40 years has been ânothing can happen without the JCs. Everything begins and ends with the JCsâ Therefore, locking up the JCs closes the company, and âkills bazillions of jobsâ.
Of those cases, the ones I am familiar with were all 20+ years ago. âJCsâ arenât prosecuted anymore. Recall the conversation Jamie Dimon had with a Senator some years ago. He said words to the effect âgo ahead and hit us with a fine, I donât care, fines are nothing but a cost of doing businessâ. Because, all those tens of millions paid, in each of several fines, are the shareholderâs money. There are never any personal consequences for Dimon, for running a criminal enterprise. Did any of the big dogs at Wells Fargo suffer personally, for the nonsense that went on there?
And letâs not forget 2008 real estate implosion due to sub-prime loans.No JC went to jail though the JCs heading Bear Stearns & Lehman Bros lost their jobs due to the collapse of their corporations they headed.
It got better. I remember Hank Paulson insisting, not only there be no consequences for the honchos who had run their banks into trouble, he insisted that money be thrown at banks that didnât need it, so there would not be any âstigmaâ about taking a government bailout.
The convicted were mostly from those Communistical countries, not Shiny-land.
The US, ground zero for the financial crisis, has jailed just one banker for issues relating to the crisis. Former Credit Suisse trader Kareem Serageldin was sentenced to thirty months in prison for artificially inflating the price of subprime mortgages, a financial product at the very heart of Wall Streetâs unravelling.
The one USian was from a foreign bank, with a foreign sounding name. Not a âred blooded USianâ.
I know, I know! Give/sell Boeing to Japan/Singapore to manage as their contribution to the Pacific democratic alliance system. Replace most of the Board and top management.