Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in US probe of fatal 737 MAX crashes

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) – Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and pay a fine of $243.6 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into two 737 MAX fatal crashes, the government said in a court filing on Sunday.

The plea deal, which requires a judge’s approval, would brand the planemaker a convicted felon in connection with crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia over a five-month period in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.