SETTLED
Boeing Fair Fund Settlement
FILING DEADLINES:
12/31/2024 ($201,000,000 The Boeing Company)
CASE NUMBER:
3-21140
CLASS PERIOD:
November 28, 2018 — October 17, 2019
TOTAL SETTLEMENT FUND:
$201,000,000.00
SETTLING DEFENDANTS
The Boeing Company
ELIGIBLE CLASS
Individuals and entities, or their lawful successors, who purchased or acquired The Boeing Company common stock listed on a U.S. exchange and registered with the Commission and traded under the symbol BA (the “Security”) during the period between November 28, 2018 and October 17, 2019, inclusive, (“Relevant Period”).
ELIGIBLE INSTRUMENTS
Boeing Company common stock.
Preliminary Allegations
According to the SEC Order, Boeing failed to exercise reasonable care in making statements to the public following two fatal accidents involving its new 737 MAX line of aircraft. Those failures resulted in Boeing making materially misleading statements to investors in November 2018 and April 2019. By failing to exercise reasonable care to ensure that statements in its November 2018 Press Release and in the April 2019 Statements were not materially misleading by ensuring that all facts necessary to make those statements not misleading under the circumstances were disclosed to investors, Boeing violated Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act.
Case Summary
Pursuant to Section 8A of the Securities Act, the SEC instituted cease-and-desist proceedings against The Boeing Company on September 22, 2022 in relation to its violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act. The Boeing Company have agreed to pay a civil money penalty in the amount of $200,000,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pursuant to Section 308(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a Fair Fund is created for the penalties paid.
Case UpdatesNovember 27, 2018
The first misleading public statement was contained in a press release issued by Boeing on November 27, 2018, following the release of the Indonesian government’s preliminary report on the Lion Air Crash (the “November 2018 Press Release” or “Press Release”). In that Press Release, Boeing highlighted certain aspects of the preliminary accident report while downplaying others, and also offered the public its “assurance” that the 737 MAX “is as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies.” However, by that point, Boeing had determined that MCAS posed an ongoing safety issue that required remediation.
March 11, 2019
“Boeing and US under pressure to ground 737 Max as further bans brought in” Boeing and the US aviation authorities have come under increasing pressure to ground the 737 Max despite repeated reassurances as the European Union and numerous other countries halted flights and Donald Trump weighed in following a second fatal crash involving the plane in less than five months.US regulators, airlines and the manufacturer have become increasingly isolated in maintaining that the plane is safe.
April 29, 2019
“Boeing Chief Seeks to Reassure Shareholders on Safety of 737 Max Jets” At the company’s annual meeting on Monday in Chicago, the chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, sought to reassure shareholders, as the company faces increasing financial, legal and regulatory pressure. Shares of Boeing have lost about 10 percent of their value since the crash in March of an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Mr. Muilenburg said Boeing was “making steady progress” in getting regulators to certify a fix for the anti-stall software that pushed the jet’s nose, a system that played a role in the Ethiopia crash and an earlier Lion Air accident in Indonesia.
October 18, 2019
“FAA says Boeing withheld ‘concerning’ pilot messages about the safety of 737 Max” The Federal Aviation Administration said Boeing withheld “concerning” messages from 2016 between employees about a flight-control system implicated in two crashes of the 737 Max, deepening the manufacturer’s crisis over the jets that have been grounded worldwide since March. A Boeing test pilot complained in one of the messages that a flight control system, known as MCAS, was difficult to control, according to the messages, obtained by NBC News. That system is at the heart of investigations into two fatal crashes. Investigators have implicated the system in both crashes — a Lion Air 737 Max that went down in Indonesia in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model that crashed in March. |
Next StepsIndividuals and entities, or their lawful successors, who purchased or acquired The Boeing Company common stock listed on a U.S. exchange and registered with the Commission and traded under the symbol BA (the “Security”) during the period between November 28, 2018 and October 17, 2019, should contact Battea Class Action Services today. |
BRIEF COMPANY PROFILE
The Boeing Company operates as an aerospace company. The Company develops, manufactures, and services commercial airplanes, defense products, and space systems. Boeing serves clients worldwide.