(WASHINGTON) — Boeing has violated a settlement that allowed the corporate to keep away from legal prosecution after two lethal crashes involving its 737 Max plane, the Justice Department informed a federal decide on Tuesday.

It is now as much as the Justice Department to determine whether or not to file fees in opposition to the plane maker amid growing scrutiny over the security of its planes. Prosecutors will inform the court docket no later than July 7 how they plan to proceed, the Justice Department stated.

Boeing reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the Justice Department in January 2021 to keep away from prosecution on a single cost of fraud – deceptive regulators who authorized the 737 Max. Boeing blamed the deception on two comparatively low-level staff.

The manufacturing big got here beneath renewed scrutiny since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner throughout an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The firm is beneath a number of investigations, and the FBI has informed passengers from the flight that they is perhaps victims of against the law.

Boeing did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

Glenn Leon, head of the Justice Department legal division’s fraud part, stated within the letter filed in Texas federal court docket that Boeing did not make adjustments to forestall it from violating federal anti-fraud legal guidelines — a situation of the the 2021 settlement.

The dedication implies that Boeing might be prosecuted “for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge,” together with the cost of fraud that the corporate hoped to keep away from with the $2.5 billion settlement, the Justice Department stated.

However, it’s not clear whether or not the federal government will prosecute the manufacturing big.

“The Government is determining how it will proceed in this matter,” the Justice Department stated within the court docket submitting. Prosecutors stated they’ll meet with households of the crash victims on May 31.

Paul Cassell, a lawyer who represents households of passengers who died within the Max crash in Ethiopia, known as it a “positive first step, and for the families, a long time coming.”

“But we need to see further action from DOJ to hold Boeing accountable, and plan to use our meeting on May 31 to explain in more details what we believe would be a satisfactory remedy to Boeing’s ongoing criminal conduct,” Cassell stated.

Investigations into the 2018 and 2019 crashes pointed to a flight-control system that Boeing added to the Max with out telling pilots or airways. Boeing downplayed the importance of the system, then didn’t overhaul it till after the second crash.

The Justice Department investigated Boeing and settled the case in January 2021. After secret negotiations, the federal government agreed to not prosecute Boeing on a cost of defrauding the United States by deceiving regulators who authorized the aircraft.

In alternate, the corporate paid $2.5 billion — a $243.6 million superb, a $500 million fund for sufferer compensation, and almost $1.8 billion to airways whose Max jets have been grounded.

Boeing has confronted civil lawsuits, congressional investigations and large harm to its enterprise because the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.