Boeing to be criminally INDICTED for fraud

 Aerospace giant Boeing could face a criminal indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly violating the terms of a 2021 settlement that protected the company from having to face charges for airline crashes that took the lives of 346 people.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the ongoing departmental deliberations, Reuters dropped the news that prosecutors are calling on senior DOJ officials to press charges against Boeing. A decision about whether or not to prosecute will need to be made by July 7.

In a court filing from last month, the DOJ claimed that Boeing breached the 2021 agreement pertaining to the numerous fatal 737 MAX airliner crashes that occurred in 2018 and 2019. Under that agreement, Boeing agreed to pay a $2.5 billion fine and implement new compliance and ethics practices to prevent any further company violations of U.S. fraud laws.

 

Boeing's South Carolina plant destroying company

Boeing's response to the news is what you might expect: denial. The company says it honored the terms of the 2021 agreement, even though there have been even more problems with the 737 MAX as of late.

One of the most recent 737 MAX incidents occurred on a MAX 9 plane operated by Alaska Airlines that had one of its door panels blow off mid-flight on Jan. 5, 2024, just two days before the DOJ settlement was scheduled to expire.

As long as Boeing agreed to comply with the agreement for at least three years, prosecutors were okay with the deferred fraud charges being dismissed. Since this appears to not have been the case with Boeing allegedly violating the deal's terms, the game has changed. 

In addition to its problems with the law, Boeing also reportedly failed a federal safety audit of its manufacturing processes, particularly at the non-union assembly plant in South Carolina.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified dozens of quality control problems at the S.C. plant, including the use of dish soap and motel key cards as makeshift assembly "tools." The FAA also launched a probe into the falsification of inspection records at the same factory in North Charleston.

The DOJ has not yet made a final decision on how to proceed, but internal discussions are ongoing. It appears as though the DOJ is building a rock-solid case against Boeing on numerous fronts, which could be why it is taking prosecutors longer than expected to show their cards.

Should Boeing face real criminal charges that go beyond just small fines or other industry-accepted costs of doing business, it will be "too damaging" for the company, Reuters reported. This sounds a whole lot like the too big to fail narrative that was pushed during the 2008 financial collapse, doesn't it?

Keep in mind that Boeing is a major defense contractor that builds weapons of mass destruction for the U.S. government. Anything that jeopardizes the company's continuity will probably not be allowed to happen, even if injustice is the result – although you never know since 2024 is showing signs of flipping the script.

"Today, a U.S. prosecutor was found dead from four self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the back of the head ...," joked a commenter at RT about what Boeing might try to do next to evade justice.

"Boeing is a weapons supplier so the max they will get is a small fine, just for show," another wrote skeptically.