Good Morning! The election cycle slowed down a little bit. Today, some business news again, including our favorite airline company: Boeing!

• Boeing acknowledges they were misleading everyone ✈️ 

• The building of a new media empire finally starts 📽️ 

Have a good one!

Nils

BOEING
Boeing now a convicted felon

What Happened 
Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to misleading air safety regulators before the two deadly 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people. The aerospace giant will formally acknowledge guilt and accept new penalties for dealing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before the crashes. As part of the plea to one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., prosecutors have asked Boeing to pay a $244 million criminal fine and spend $455 million over the next three years to improve its compliance and safety programs. Boeing must also hire an independent three-year monitor to oversee these improvements.

Why It Matters

• The guilty plea is a significant concession from the world's largest aerospace company, which will now be branded a felon.

• The plea deal replaced Boeing’s more lenient punishment in January 2021, when prosecutors agreed to defer the criminal charge as long as the company stayed out of trouble.

• Pleading guilty creates business challenges for Boeing, as companies with felony convictions can be suspended or barred as defense contractors. Boeing, which received $22.8 billion in Defense Department contracts last year, is expected to seek a waiver to avoid this consequence.

• The plea agreement falls short of the demands of the victims' families, who had asked for a much larger fine, a trial without concessions, and the pursuit of other charges against the company and executives.

What's Next 
The plea agreement still needs to be approved by a court. If accepted, Boeing will face three years of court-supervised probation, during which it could face additional penalties if it fails to comply with the terms. The company's board of directors has also agreed to meet with the victims' families as part of the plea deal. However, an attorney for the families has signaled that his clients intend to object to the deal, arguing that it unfairly makes concessions to Boeing that other criminal defendants would not receive and fails to hold the company fully accountable for the deaths. As Boeing moves forward with the guilty plea, it faces the challenge of rebuilding trust with regulators, customers, and the public while navigating its actions' legal and business consequences.