Boeing fined $200 million for misleading investors about safety of Boeing 737 MAX
The American manufacturer of space, military and aviation equipment will pay compensation to investors for misleading information.
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This decision was made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulator fined the corporation for misleading investors about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX. The amount of the fine will be $200 million. The former head of Boeing, Dennis A. Muilenburg, was fined $1 million.
In October 2018, Lion Air's Boeing 737 MAX went down in Indonesia. The crash killed 189 passengers. Six months later, the same plane, used by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed in Ethiopia. There were 157 victims.
The corporation claimed that the Boeing 737 MAX is as safe as any other aircraft. The Securities and Exchange Commission claims that after the two crashes, the company continued to make false claims about the plane's safety, even though it knew about the problem with the maneuvering correction system.
After the plane crash in Indonesia, Dennis Muehlenburg approved a press release stating that poor maintenance and pilot error were the possible causes of the plane going down. However, even then the company started the process of redesigning the maneuvering correction system, but did not notify it.
The SEC says Boeing and Dennis Muhlenburg put profits ahead of people's interests and misled investors about safety. The defendants agreed to pay $200 million and $1 million, respectively, but would neither admit nor deny the regulator's findings.