Relatives of the victims from the two Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes demanded on Wednesday (June 19) that the U.S. Department of Justice take action against Boeing, imposing fines of up to $24.78 billion and filing criminal charges.
Representing 15 families of the victims, lawyer Paul Cassel stated in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice released on Wednesday, “Because Boeing’s actions constitute the deadliest corporate crime in American history, the fine of over $24 billion is legally justified and evidently appropriate.”
The families indicated that the Department of Justice might temporarily defer fines ranging from $14 billion to $22 billion, “conditional on Boeing using these deferred funds for independent corporate oversight and relevant improvements in compliance and safety.”
In May of this year, the Department of Justice announced that it found Boeing in violation of a deferred prosecution agreement from 2021, which shielded Boeing from criminal charges of conspiracy fraud stemming from two fatal plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that resulted in 346 deaths.
Boeing informed the Department of Justice last week that it did not breach the agreement. Federal prosecutors must inform a federal judge in Texas of their plan by July 7, which could involve either continuing to prosecute the case criminally or negotiating a plea agreement with Boeing. The Department of Justice could also extend the deferred prosecution agreement for another year.
Just two days before the expiration of the 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, Department of Justice officials discovered that Boeing had violated the terms because on January 5, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 suffered a door seal rupture and detachment shortly after takeoff, exposing ongoing safety and quality issues at Boeing.
The families also stated in the letter that the Department of Justice should compel Boeing’s board of directors to meet with them and should “bring criminal charges against company officials responsible at Boeing for the two crashes.”
Boeing and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments.
The letter noted that Senator Richard Blumenthal, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations under the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, said, “As a former prosecutor, it is my view that there is almost overwhelming evidence that prosecution should take place.”
The Democratic U.S. Senator from Connecticut attended a Senate hearing on Tuesday where Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun testified.
The two Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes occurred in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019, respectively, grounding the best-selling aircraft globally for 20 months. A safety system called MCAS was linked to both fatal accidents.