Boeing To Settle Procurement Investigations, Avoid Prosecution Boeing confirmed it has tentatively agreed to pay $615 million to settle two federal investigations into its contracting practices. The tentative settlement will allow the second-largest defense contractor to avoid prosecution. The Justice Department has been investigating Boeing’s dealings with the former Air Force acquisition executive Darleen Druyun, who pleaded guilty to providing favorable treatment for the company before she went to work there. A separate investigation determined that Boeing employees stole thousands of pages of proprietary documents from Lockheed when the two companies were competing for rocket-launch contracts in the 1990s. In a short written statement, the company’s chief lawyer, Doug Bain, said, “Boeing will accept responsibility for the conduct of its employees and make additional commitments regarding ongoing compliance.” He said the settlement agreement is expected to be signed in the next few weeks. As a result of the rocket-launch investigation, the Defense Department took away $1 billion worth of Boeing’s launch contracts and suspended the company from bidding on such business for 20 months, said to be the longest suspension for any big defense contractor. The suspension was lifted in March. Boeing recruited Druyun while she was still overseeing some of its contracts with the Air Force. She took a $250,000-a-year job with the company after retiring from the Air Force and admitted she had improperly favored Boeing on some contracts. She and the company’s chief financial officer, Michael Sears, served prison terms. The case sparked a widespread review of Pentagon contracting practices. Wall Street analysts said Boeing’s new CEO, W. James McNerney Jr., had installed new ethics guidelines and reorganized its military units in an effort to remove the taint of scandal. The company recently announced the hiring of J. Michael Luttig, a federal appeals judge who had been mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee, as its chief legal officer.