Boeing at Risk of Prosecution for Breaking Deal Over Crashes (1)

Boeing Co. faces possible criminal prosecution after the US Justice Department found the company violated a deferred-prosecution agreement tied to two fatal crashes half a decade ago, intensifying the crisis engulfing the embattled US planemaker.

The company breached the $2.5 billion settlement “by failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations,” according to the filing late on Tuesday.

Boeing, whose shares were down more than 1% shortly after trading began on Wednesday, now has four weeks to respond with its analysis and comments, which ...