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The U.S. Justice Department is pushing\u00a0Boeing<\/a>\u00a0to plead guilty\u00a0to criminal fraud<\/a>\u00a0in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.<\/p>\n Boeing<\/a> will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee\u00a0its compliance<\/a>\u00a0with anti-fraud laws, they said.<\/p>\n The case stems from the department\u2019s determination that Boeing\u00a0violated an agreement<\/a>\u00a0that was intended to resolve\u00a0a 2021 charge<\/a>\u00a0of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government. Prosecutors alleged at the time that Boeing misled regulators who approved the 737 Max and set pilot-training requirements to fly the plane. The company blamed\u00a0two relatively low-level employees<\/a>\u00a0for the fraud.<\/p>\n The Justice Department told\u00a0relatives of some of the 346 people<\/a>\u00a0who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes about the plea offer during a video meeting. The\u00a0family members<\/a>, who want Boeing to face a criminal trial and to pay a $24.8 billion fine, reacted angrily. One said prosecutors were gaslighting the families; another shouted at them for several minutes when given a chance to speak.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are upset. They should just prosecute,\u201d said Massachusetts resident Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two 737 Max crashes. \u201cThis is just a reworking of letting Boeing off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors told the families that if Boeing rejects the plea offer, the Justice Department would seek a trial in the matter, meeting participants said. Justice Department officials presented the offer to Boeing during a meeting later Sunday, according to a person familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n Boeing and the Justice Department declined to comment.<\/p>\n The plea deal would take away the ability of U.S. District\u00a0Judge Reed O\u2019Connor<\/a>\u00a0to increase Boeing\u2019s sentence for a conviction, and some of the families plan to ask the Texas judge to reject the deal if Boeing agrees to it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn\u2019t acknowledge that Boeing\u2019s crime killed 346 people,\u201d said Paul Cassell, one of the lawyers for victims\u2019 families. \u201cBoeing is not going to be held accountable for that, and they are not going to admit that that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanjiv Singh, a lawyer for 16 families who lost relatives in the October 2018 Lion Air crash off Indonesia, called the plea offer \u201cextremely disappointing.\u201d The terms, he said, \u201cread to me like a sweetheart deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Another lawyer representing families who are suing Boeing, Mark Lindquist, said he asked the head of the Justice Department\u2019s fraud section, Glenn Leon, whether the department would add additional charges if Boeing turns down the plea deal. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t commit one way or another,\u201d Lindquist said.<\/p>\n The meeting with crash victims\u2019 families came weeks after prosecutors told O\u2019Connor that the American aerospace giant breached the January 2021 deal that had protected Boeing from criminal prosecution in connection with the crashes. The second one took place\u00a0in<\/a> <\/a>Ethiopia<\/a>\u00a0less than five months after the one\u00a0in Indonesia<\/a>.<\/p>\n A conviction could jeopardize Boeing\u2019s status as a federal contractor, according to some legal experts. The company has large contracts with the Pentagon\u00a0and NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, federal agencies can give waivers to companies that are convicted of felonies to keep them eligible for government contracts. Lawyers for the crash victims\u2019 families expect that would be done for Boeing.<\/p>\n Boeing paid a $244 million fine as part of\u00a0the 2021 settlement<\/a>\u00a0of the original fraud charge. The Justice Department is likely to seek another, similar penalty as part of the new plea offer, said a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing to discuss an ongoing case.<\/p>\n The deal would include a monitor to oversee Boeing \u2014 but the company would put forward three nominees and have the Justice Department pick one, or ask Boeing for additional names. That provision was particularly hated by the family members on the call, participants said.<\/p>\n The Justice Department also gave no indication of moving to prosecute any current or former Boeing executives, another long-sought demand of the families.<\/p>\n Lindquist, a former prosecutor, said officials made clear during\u00a0an earlier meeting<\/a>\u00a0that individuals \u2013 even CEOs \u2013 can be more sympathetic defendants than corporations. The officials pointed to the 2022 acquittal on fraud charges of Boeing\u2019s chief technical pilot for the Max as an example.<\/p>\n It is unclear what impact a plea deal might have on other investigations into Boeing, including those following the blowout of a panel called a door plug from the side of a Boeing Max 9 during\u00a0an Alaska Airlines flight<\/a>\u00a0in January.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n