A federal judge rejected that on Thursday BoeingThe manufacturer's settlement is said to a criminal fraud charge related to fatal crashes involving the manufacturer's 737 Max aircraft.
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas expressed concerns in his ruling that the choice process for a government-appointed observer, a condition of the plea deal, could be compromised by diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
He wrote: “In view of the foregoing, the Court is not satisfied that the Government will not select an observer without racial considerations and therefore will not act in a non-discriminatory manner. In a case of this magnitude, this is of the utmost interest. “It is reasonable for the public to believe that this monitor selection is based solely on competence.”
In October, O'Connor directed Boeing and the Justice Department to provide details on DEI policies that could affect the monitor's selection.
According to a court document filed Thursday, the court gave Boeing and the Justice Department 30 days to decide how to proceed.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by deceiving regulators about the installation of a flight control system on the Max that was later involved in the two crashes – a Lion Air flight in October 2018 – and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. All 346 people on the flights were killed.
Boeing and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.
Victims' family members objected to a government-appointed monitor as a condition of the agreement, which they called a “sweetheart deal,” and sought to have more influence in the monitor's selection.
Erin Applebaum, an attorney representing one of the victims' family members, welcomed the deal. “We expect a significant renegotiation of the plea deal that includes terms that are truly commensurate with the seriousness of Boeing’s crimes,” Applebaum said in a press release. “It’s time for the DOJ to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability.”
The deal was intended to permit Boeing to avoid a lawsuit because it tried to place the corporate back on solid footing after a door panel on a 737 Max 9 exploded in mid-air on Jan. 5 during an Alaska Airlines flight.
The recent settlement agreement got here after the Justice Department said in May that Boeing had violated a previous settlement agreement that was set to run out days after the door panel incident.
O'Connor said in his decision Thursday that it was “not clear what Boeing did to violate the Deferred Prosecution Agreement.”
Under the brand new plea agreement, Boeing would face a nice of as much as $487.2 million. However, the Justice Department really useful that the court credit Boeing with half of the quantity paid under a previous agreement, leading to a $243.6 million nice.
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