DoJ defends Boeing criminal plea deal after objections from victims’ families

The U.S. Department of Justice has come out in defense of its settlement with Boeing (NYSE:BA) after some family members of 737 MAX crash victims called for it to be rejected, Bloomberg reported late Wednesday.

In response to a request from families that a Texas federal judge reject the deal, the DoJ said in a legal filing that its decision to enter into the agreement is “dictated by what it can prove in court and what it cannot.”

Boeing (BA) finalized an agreement last month to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay at least $243.6M after breaching a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, after the government said the company knowingly made false representations to the Federal Aviation Administration about key software for the MAX.

Families of the victims said Boeing (BA) should face “significantly larger and more meaningful” financial penalties than outlined in the agreement, and that the judge should be designated to select the outside monitor for the deal, rather than the Justice Department with input from the company.

“The government has the deepest respect for the victims,” the DoJ said in the filing, but “after years of investigation, the government has not found the one thing that underlies the families’ most passionate objections to the proposed resolution: evidence that could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Boeing’s fraud caused the deaths of their loved ones.”

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who is overseeing the case, has not yet decided if he will hold a hearing on the plea deal.