Boeing to plead guilty in 737 MAX crash case

[dupe]

More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40902749

> Last week they gave Boeing the choice of entering a guilty plea and paying a fine as part of its sentence or facing a trial on the felony criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the US over the crashes, which claimed 346 lives.

Why not both? We have them over a barrel and the best we can do is ask them to invest a measly sum as penance and then drop the defraud charges? What is this.