According to ABC's report on May 7th, the US Department of Justice has sent letters to the families of the victims of two Boeing 737 Max plane crashes, inviting them to attend a meeting on May 31st to determine whether Boeing has violated an agreement allowing them to be exempt from criminal prosecution for the crash.
In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737MAX 8 passenger planes crashed in Indonesia and Ethiopia respectively, resulting in the deaths of 346 people. In January 2021, the US Department of Justice filed a criminal lawsuit against Boeing and reached an agreement to extend the prosecution. Boeing has agreed to pay fines and compensation exceeding $2.5 billion and is committed to implementing compliance and improvement plans as required. The deferred prosecution agreement expired in January of this year. In April of this year, the families of passengers involved in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash met with officials in Washington to demand that they restart criminal fraud charges against Boeing to determine that the company had violated the terms of the 2021 settlement agreement.