Boeing will pay more than $2.5 billion to settle a criminal charge related to the two 737 Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
The Justice Department has announced that it has reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing to resolve a charge of criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA.
Boeing admits to criminal misconduct for misleading regulators about the safety of the troubled jetliner, but the airplane manufacturer is not pleading guilty to the charge. If Boeing complies with the terms of the settlement, in three years the government will drop the criminal charge. That's important for Boeing, a huge federal defense contractor, because a criminal conviction would prohibit the company from getting future government contacts.