US asks judge to dismiss Boeing 737 MAX criminal fraud case

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss a criminal fraud charge against Boeing stemming from two fatal 737 MAX plane crashes that killed 346 people, saying it had reached agreement with the planemaker.

Under the deal, the U.S. planemaker will avoid being branded a convicted felon but it has agreed to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims’ fund that would be divided evenly per crash victim on top of an additional $243.6 million fine. Boeing, which last year had agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal, will pay $1.1 billion including the fine and compensation to families and over $455 million to strengthen the company’s compliance, safety, and quality programs, the Justice Department said, adding the deal "secures meaningful accountability, delivers substantial and immediate public benefits, and brings finality to a difficult and complex case whose outcome would otherwise be uncertain."