US justice department wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say

US justice department wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say
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People stand near collected debris at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometes southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 11, 2019. (AFP/File)
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Updated 01 July 2024
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US justice department wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say

US justice department wants Boeing to plead guilty to fraud over fatal crashes, lawyers say
  • Boeing will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer
  • Families of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes want Boeing to face a criminal trial and to pay a $24.8 billion fine

The US Justice Department is pushing Boeing to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly plane crashes involving its 737 Max jetliners, according to several people who heard federal prosecutors detail a proposed offer Sunday.
Boeing will have until the end of the coming week to accept or reject the offer, which includes the giant aerospace company agreeing to an independent monitor who would oversee its compliance with anti-fraud laws, they said.
The case stems from the department’s determination that Boeing violated an agreement that was intended to resolve a 2021 charge of conspiracy to defraud the US government. Prosecutors alleged at the time that Boeing misled regulators who approved the 737 Max and set pilot-training requirements to fly the plane. The company blamed two relatively low-level employees for the fraud.
The Justice Department told relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes about the plea offer during a video meeting. The family members, who want Boeing to face a criminal trial and to pay a $24.8 billion fine, reacted angrily. One said prosecutors were gaslighting the families; another shouted at them for several minutes when given a chance to speak.
“We are upset. They should just prosecute,” said Massachusetts resident Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two 737 Max crashes. “This is just a reworking of letting Boeing off the hook.”

Prosecutors told the families that if Boeing rejects the plea offer, the Justice Department would seek a trial in the matter, meeting participants said. Justice Department officials presented the offer to Boeing during a meeting later Sunday, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Boeing and the Justice Department declined to comment.
The plea deal would take away the ability of US District Judge Reed O’Connor to increase Boeing’s sentence for a conviction, and some of the families plan to ask the Texas judge to reject the deal if Boeing agrees to it.
“The underlying outrageous piece of this deal is that it doesn’t acknowledge that Boeing’s crime killed 346 people,” said Paul Cassell, one of the lawyers for victims’ families. “Boeing is not going to be held accountable for that, and they are not going to admit that that happened.”
Sanjiv Singh, a lawyer for 16 families who lost relatives in the October 2018 Lion Air crash off Indonesia, called the plea offer “extremely disappointing.” The terms, he said, “read to me like a sweetheart deal.”
Another lawyer representing families who are suing Boeing, Mark Lindquist, said he asked the head of the Justice Department’s fraud section, Glenn Leon, whether the department would add additional charges if Boeing turns down the plea deal. “He wouldn’t commit one way or another,” Lindquist said.

The meeting with crash victims’ families came weeks after prosecutors told O’Connor that the American aerospace giant breached the January 2021 deal that had protected Boeing from criminal prosecution in connection with the crashes. The second one took place in Ethiopia less than five months after the one in Indonesia.
A conviction could jeopardize Boeing’s status as a federal contractor, according to some legal experts. The company has large contracts with the Pentagon and NASA.
However, federal agencies can give waivers to companies that are convicted of felonies to keep them eligible for government contracts. Lawyers for the crash victims’ families expect that would be done for Boeing.
Boeing paid a $244 million fine as part of the 2021 settlement of the original fraud charge. The Justice Department is likely to seek another, similar penalty as part of the new plea offer, said a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing to discuss an ongoing case.
The deal would include a monitor to oversee Boeing — but the company would put forward three nominees and have the Justice Department pick one, or ask Boeing for additional names. That provision was particularly hated by the family members on the call, participants said.
The Justice Department also gave no indication of moving to prosecute any current or former Boeing executives, another long-sought demand of the families.
Lindquist, a former prosecutor, said officials made clear during an earlier meeting that individuals – even CEOs – can be more sympathetic defendants than corporations. The officials pointed to the 2022 acquittal on fraud charges of Boeing’s chief technical pilot for the Max as an example.
It is unclear what impact a plea deal might have on other investigations into Boeing, including those following the blowout of a panel called a door plug from the side of a Boeing Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.


Sweden detains suspected spy, TV reports diplomat in custody

Updated 4 sec ago
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Sweden detains suspected spy, TV reports diplomat in custody

Sweden detains suspected spy, TV reports diplomat in custody
The suspect had been posted to a number of embassies around the world
SAPO was investigating a potential connection between the suspect and the resignation of the government’s national security adviser last week

STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s security service has detained a Swedish diplomat on suspicion of espionage, public television SVT reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.
The security service (SAPO) said it had detained a person on suspicion of spying after an operation in the Stockholm area in the last few days, but declined to give further information.
“It is correct that we have a case where the suspicion is spying,” SAPO spokesperson Karin Lutz told Reuters. “One person has been taken into custody.”
SVT said the suspect had been posted to a number of embassies around the world and that SAPO was investigating a potential connection between the suspect and the resignation of the government’s national security adviser last week.
A security service spokesperson said SAPO had noted the media report but declined to comment further.
“The investigation is at an early stage and we cannot say anything due to secrecy considerations,” the spokesperson said.
Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, resigned a day after being named as national security adviser.
Thyberg is not suspect in a crime, SVT said. Thyberg’s predecessor stepped down in January and was then charged with negligent handling of classified information.
Anton Strand, the lawyer appointed to defend the person in custody, told newspaper Aftonbladet his client denied wrong-doing and had filed a criminal complaint against the police over the arrest. He did not immediately respond to Reuters’ attempts to reach him by phone and email.
Swedish authorities have fretted in recent years about increasing threats from both foreign powers like Russia, China and Iran and groups engaging in actions ranging from violent attacks and hybrid warfare to corporate espionage.
In March, SAPO warned that foreign powers are operating in ways that threaten security, using hybrid activities to destabilize Sweden and Europe.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told SVT the government had been informed of SAPO’s operation and the person in custody was suspected “on reasonable grounds” of espionage. Reasonable grounds is the lower of two grades of suspicion in Sweden.
“The investigation has to be carried out and I don’t want to preempt it,” Strommer said in a statement to SVT.

Man in jail for nearly four decades for murder acquitted by London court

Man in jail for nearly four decades for murder acquitted by London court
Updated 13 May 2025
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Man in jail for nearly four decades for murder acquitted by London court

Man in jail for nearly four decades for murder acquitted by London court
  • Peter Sullivan was sentenced to life in 1987 for the murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall
  • “Our client Peter Sullivan is the longest-serving victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK,” said his lawyer

LONDON: A man who has spent nearly 40 years in jail for murder had his conviction overturned by a London court on Tuesday after advancements in DNA testing techniques cast doubt on his guilt.

Peter Sullivan, believed to be the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice in Britain, was sentenced to life in 1987 for the murder of 21-year-old Diane Sindall, who was found dead after leaving her place of work in the northwest England town of Bebington, close to Liverpool, the previous year.

He applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission — an independent body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice — in 2021, raising concerns about his police interviews, bite-mark evidence presented in his trial, and what was said to be the murder weapon, the commission said in a statement.

The commission then obtained DNA information from samples taken at the time of the offense and found that the profile did not match that of Sullivan. His case was then sent to London’s Court of Appeal, which quashed the conviction on Tuesday based on the new evidence.

“This is an unprecedented and historic moment. Our client Peter Sullivan is the longest-serving victim of a miscarriage of justice in the UK,” his lawyer told reporters outside the court.

Reading a message from Sullivan, the lawyer said: “What happened to me was very wrong, but it does not detract or minimize that all of this happened off the back of a heinous and most terrible loss of life.”

Sullivan had applied to the CCRC questioning DNA evidence in 2008, but forensic experts advised at the time that any further testing would be very unlikely to produce a DNA profile.

The techniques used in the testing that led to his case being referred were not available at the time of his first application, the CCRC said.

Merseyside Police, which reopened the investigation in 2023, said there was no match for the DNA identified on the national DNA database, adding that they were committed to doing “everything within our power” to find to whom it belonged.

“The truth shall set you free ... As we advance toward resolving the wrongs done to me, I am not angry, I am not bitter,” Sullivan said in his message.


Over 84,000 people affected by Somalia floods since mid-April: UN

Over 84,000 people affected by Somalia floods since mid-April: UN
Updated 13 May 2025
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Over 84,000 people affected by Somalia floods since mid-April: UN

Over 84,000 people affected by Somalia floods since mid-April: UN
  • “Since mid-April, flash floods caused by heavy seasonal rains have killed 17 people and affected over 84,000 people in several areas,” OCHA said
  • “Critical infrastructure has been damaged“

NAIROBI: More than 84,000 people have been affected by flash floods in Somalia since mid-April, the United Nations said Tuesday, leaving at least 17 people killed.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent and intense.

“Since mid-April, flash floods caused by heavy seasonal rains have killed 17 people and affected over 84,000 people in several areas,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.

The figure includes people who have displaced, lost shelter, now have a lack of access to humanitarian assistance, or suffer water shortages.

Jubaland, Hirshabelle, South West, Galmudug, Puntland states and Banadir region — which includes capital Mogadishu — were most impacted, OCHA said, leaving more than 8,100 people displaced.

“Critical infrastructure has been damaged,” it added, noting that water points had been submerged and almost 200 latrines were destroyed.

It comes just days after torrential rain in southeastern Banadir killed at least nine people and affected approximately 24,600 others.

“The rains significantly impacted internally displaced people,” OCHA said, citing local authorities.

According to the UN report, meteorologists have warned that more rain is expected in the coming days across southern and central Somalia.

Somalia was hit by intense floods in 2023. More than 100 people were killed and over a million displaced after severe flooding caused by torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern.


Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with Trump administration

Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with Trump administration
Updated 13 May 2025
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Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with Trump administration

Harvard loses another $450 million in grants in escalating battle with Trump administration
  • A federal antisemitism task force said Harvard will lose grants from eight federal agencies
  • Harvard has faced escalating sanctions from the White House after becoming the first US university to openly defy the government’s demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration is cutting another $450 million in grants to Harvard University a day after the Ivy League school pushed back against government allegations that it’s a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism.

In a letter to Harvard on Tuesday, a federal antisemitism task force said Harvard will lose grants from eight federal agencies in addition to $2.2 billion that was previously frozen by the Trump administration.

The letter said Harvard has become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination” and faces a “steep, uphill battle” to reclaim its legacy as a place of academic excellence.

“There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” the letter said.

It was signed by officials at the Education Department, Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration.

University officials did not immediately provide comment on the letter.

Harvard has faced escalating sanctions from the White House after becoming the first US university to openly defy the government’s demands to limit pro-Palestinian activism and end diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Trump, a Republican, has said he wants Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security has threatened to revoke the school’s eligibility to host foreign students.

Last week, the Education Department said Harvard will receive no new federal grants until it meets the government’s demands.

The Trump administration has demanded Harvard make broad leadership changes, revise its admissions policies and audit its faculty and student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints.

The demands are part of a pressure campaign targeting several other high-profile universities. The administration has cut off money to colleges including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, seeking compliance with Trump’s agenda.

Harvard is suing to block the federal funding freeze.

Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government’s allegations in a Monday letter, saying Harvard is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance with the law, calling the federal sanctions an “unlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university’s operations.”

The government’s letter on Tuesday said Harvard has repeatedly failed to address racial discrimination and antisemitism on campus. It cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down Harvard’s use of race in the admissions process, along with a recent internal report at Harvard detailing cases of antisemitic harassment.

___ Collin Binkley has covered Harvard for nearly a decade — most of the time living half a mile from its campus.


Bulgarian parliament rejects president’s euro referendum proposal

Bulgarian parliament rejects president’s euro referendum proposal
Updated 13 May 2025
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Bulgarian parliament rejects president’s euro referendum proposal

Bulgarian parliament rejects president’s euro referendum proposal
  • Kiselova said it did not comply with several articles of the Bulgarian constitution
  • The constitutional court has previously rejected a petition for a referendum on joining the euro
Kiselova said it did not comply with several articles of the Bulgarian constitution
The constitutional court has previously rejected a petition for a referendum on joining the euro

SOFIA: The speaker of the Bulgarian national assembly Nataliya Kiselova has dismissed President Rumen Radev’s proposal for a national referendum on adopting the euro, saying it violated the constitution, the BTA news agency reported on Tuesday.

On Monday, Radev had suggested a referendum on Bulgaria’s plans to adopt the euro next year with the question: “Do you agree that Bulgaria should introduce the single European currency ‘euro’ in 2026?” His proposal was criticized by the government, with one minister saying it was an attempt to sabotage its efforts to join the single currency.

Sending back the proposal, Kiselova said it did not comply with several articles of the Bulgarian constitution and related European Union treaties, and was inconsistent with rulings from the country’s constitutional court.

The constitutional court has previously rejected a petition for a referendum on joining the euro.

The government aims to adopt the euro next January, pending confirmation from the European Commission and the European Central Bank in June that all membership criteria have been met.

Economists say that Bulgaria, whose lev currency has long been pegged to the euro, would attract more foreign investment if it adopted the single currency and would secure credit ratings upgrades that could cut its debt financing costs.

However, Bulgarians are split on the euro’s adoption, with concerns that it might lead to price hikes, similar to what occurred in Croatia when it switched to the euro in 2023.