Former Boeing Co. chief financial officer Michael Sears is expected to plead guilty in November to illegally offering a job to a former top Air Force procurement official who favored the aerospace giant on several multibillion-dollar contracts.
But according to a source familiar with the investigation, prosecutors also are trying to get Sears to admit to something else: that his improper talks with the Air Force official tainted key Boeing defense contracts and hurt taxpayers. He has resisted making this admission.
If Sears agrees to the broader plea, it could fundamentally reshape the Pentagon’s ethics probe, spark a new round of scrutiny over several major Air Force contracts and lead to the cancellation of major Boeing projects, the source said.
Sears’ plea hearing has been set for Nov. 15 in federal court in Alexandria, Va. He has been charged with one felony count for offering a $250,000-a-year job to Darleen Druyun, the Department of the Air Force’s former principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition.
Druyun acknowledged she picked Boeing over four competitors on a $4 billion contract to upgrade the cockpit electronics of C-130 Hercules cargo planes as “indebtedness” for hiring her family. She also arranged to pay Boeing $100 million more than what she believed was warranted to restructure an early-warning radar plane deal for NATO.
In addition, she agreed to pay Boeing $412 million to settle a contract dispute over the production of C-17 Globemaster III transport planes. And in the most high-profile deal of all – to acquire 100 Boeing 767s for $23 billion for use as aerial refueling tankers – Druyun admitted to agreeing to pay a higher price for the aircraft than she believed “was appropriate.”
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