Boeing violated the agreement, thanks to which the company avoided criminal prosecution

Boeing has violated an agreement that allowed it to avoid prosecution five years ago after two deadly crashes involving the 737 Max.

Source. AP writes about this with reference to the US Department of Justice to a federal judge.

The Department of Justice must now decide whether to press charges against Boeing. Prosecutors will inform the court by 7 July how they plan to proceed, the department said.

In a letter filed today in a Texas federal court, the head of the Justice Department's Fraud Section said Boeing violated the terms of the settlement agreement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws.

According to the AP, this means that Boeing could be held liable "for any federal criminal violation of which the United States is aware", including fraud charges.

In early May, it was reported that Joshua Dean, one of the first whistleblowers about defects in Boeing aircraft, died in the United States.

According to The Seattle Times, he died of a sudden, rapidly spreading infection. This death was the second among the whistleblowers about Boeing's problems in the last two months.

Another Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, was found dead in March. The cause of death was ruled suicide. Barnett was about to testify that Boeing had retaliated against him for complaining about the deteriorating quality of the airline's products.

Background. As we previously wrote, a Boeing engineer filed a complaint against the company for rejecting his claims about the safety of the 787. Instead of heeding his warnings, the company prioritised bringing the aircraft to market as soon as possible.