Fired Boeing Executive to Plead Guilty to Conspiracy

A fired Boeing Co. executive under investigation in a federal corruption probe has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy for her role in helping the company land a $23-billion Air Force contract.

Darleen Druyun, 56, had been an Air Force procurement officer working on the contract to lease and buy 100 Boeing 767s for use as aerial refueling tankers. She was hired as deputy general manager of Boeing’s missile defense unit in January 2003, shortly after the contract was awarded. Druyun and Michael Sears, Boeing’s chief financial officer, were fired in November.

Boeing said they had violated company policy by discussing Druyun’s joining the company while she was in her Pentagon job. Further, Boeing said, both tried to hide what they did.

Druyun’s agreement to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge was contained in documents filed last week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. She is expected to enter the plea Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Druyun’s attorney declined to comment.

Boeing spokesman Doug Kennett said the company had been cooperating with authorities in the investigation, adding that the company “uncovered inappropriate conduct involving our hiring practices and responded accordingly.” He declined to comment on Druyun’s guilty plea.

Sears, also 56, has denied wrongdoing.

A week after Druyun and Sears were fired, Boeing’s longtime chairman and chief executive, Phil Condit, resigned. He called the matter “a critical factor” in his decision to leave.

Sears, who had been considered a candidate to succeed Condit, was president of McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s commercial aircraft division in Long Beach when Boeing acquired the company in 1997. He became head of Boeing’s military aircraft and missile systems group after the acquisition and was named chief financial officer in May 2000.

Boeing was competing with European rival Airbus for the tanker contract. Internal Air Force documents written by Druyun that have surfaced in the federal investigation show that Airbus’ bid to supply was lower than Boeing’s.

The tanker scandal is the second for Chicago-based Boeing in the last year. In July, the Air Force took $1 billion in rocket launch contracts from the company after finding that Boeing had illegally acquired thousands of pages of proprietary documents from competitor Lockheed Martin Corp.

The tanker deal has been criticized in Congress, and the Pentagon’s inspector general said Friday that the contract should undergo significant changes before being allowed to proceed.

Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher told The Times last week that he was waiting for the Pentagon and Congress to complete investigations of the tanker contract, which he hoped would be resolved by May.

Boeing spokesman Kennett also said last week that the tanker contract “has been the most scrutinized and debated we have ever seen. There is no question that the 767 tanker is the best in the world and the only one that meets the needs of the U.S. military and its allies.”

Boeing executives said last month that they expected the contract to go forward but that the company was prepared to take a $310-million charge if the deal collapsed.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Wiechering, who court records show is prosecuting the Druyun case, declined to comment Tuesday.

Shares of Boeing, a major employer in Southern California with 36,000 employees here, fell 37 cents to close at $41.78 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Times wire services were used in compiling this report.