Boeing to Plead Guilty to Case, Reports Claim

Boeing Co., a target of a wide investigation into corporate espionage by major defense contractors, has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges of illegally obtaining Pentagon planning documents in 1984, according to published reports.

The agreement, due to be announced shortly, reportedly calls for Boeing to plead guilty to “unauthorized conveyance” of two sensitive Defense Department budget documents. It apparently was intended to avoid an indictment by the same grand jury that in August indicted Richard Lee Fowler, 64, a former Boeing official who allegedly obtained the documents.

Fowler, a senior marketing analyst for Boeing Aerospace in Arlington, Va., until he was fired in 1986 following an internal inquiry, was indicted on 39 felony counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and other crimes involving illegal dealing in classified documents.

During the investigation that led to his firing, Fowler told Boeing attorneys the reason he was hired by the aerospace company was to obtain such documents.

Officials from the Justice Department and Boeing declined comment.

Court documents in Alexandria named Boeing as a co-conspirator in the case from 1979 through 1985.

If Boeing pleads guilty to criminal charges, the Seattle aerospace giant would be the second major U.S. defense contractor convicted in the federal probe of how defense contractors obtained classified documents that give them an advanced look into the Pentagon’s future needs. The agreement also could, at least temporarily, bar Boeing from receiving new federal contracts.

The first company convicted in the federal investigation was GTE, which pleaded guilty in 1985 to conspiring to obtain classified defense documents illegally. The company pleaded guilty to a criminal charge rather than be indicted.

It was the GTE case that apparently triggered the investigation of Boeing and Fowler. Boeing and several other major defense contractors were named during a 1986 court hearing in the case of GTE consultant Bernie Zettl, who said trafficking in Pentagon documents is widespread in the defense industry.

Zettl has not yet come to trial. Fowler, who has pleaded innocent, has adopted a similar defense, court documents show.

Fowler’s growing case file contains a transcript of an interview with Boeing attorneys in July, 1986, in which Fowler said he obtained secret Pentagon planning and budget documents and took them to his office at Boeing Aerospace.

Asked whether he was pressured into getting the documents, Fowler answered, “No. That’s what I was hired to do.”

Fowler told the Boeing attorneys that he was asked to get the reports by management-level persons in Boeing Aerospace, Boeing Military Airplanes, and the company’s Vertol helicopter division. He said no requests came from the company’s director or vice presidential levels.

The transcript quoted Fowler as saying that obtaining such secret documents “was a common practice throughout the aerospace industry until (the) GTE (scandal) broke.”