The Department of Justice notified Boeing on Tuesday that the company has violated the terms of a 2021 agreement following crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft that protected the company from criminal charges, allowing the DOJ to pursue criminal indictments, CNN reports.
The DOJ asserts that Boeing breached its obligations in the agreement “by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.” The company entered into the agreement that essentially opened up its operations to investigators after a series of accidents, including fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the 737 Max 800.
It’s unclear if the DOJ made its decision because it found things in its recent investigations into a series of mishaps involving Boeing aircraft, including an exit door plug exploding, a tire falling off landing gear, or an engine cowling dropping off midflight.