Former Boeing Employee Plea Bargains To Avoid Jail | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-05.05.25

Airborne-NextGen-05.06.25

AirborneUnlimited-05.07.25

Airborne-Unlimited-05.01.25

AirborneUnlimited-05.02.25

Sat, Dec 09, 2006

Former Boeing Employee Plea Bargains To Avoid Jail

Accepts 'Obstruction' Charge Instead Of 'Conspiracy'

Former Boeing Engineer Kenneth Branch plea bargained a deal with prosecutors to avoid jail time in a case involving a rivalry between Boeing and Lockheed for the USAF's Evolved Expendable Vehicle Launch (EELV) program.

The two companies were competing for a government satellite launching contract when Branch and another ex-Boeing engineer William Erskine were accused of stealing trade information from Lockheed.

Branch had left Lockheed for a position with Boeing -- Erskine hired him. Erskine allegedly told another Boeing employee he'd hired Branch because Branch had offered to bring Lockheed's entire EELV bid proposal with him.

Charges against another Boeing employee implicated in the case, Larry Satchell, have been dismissed on procedural grounds

Boeing won 19 of 28 contracts it bid on for the satellite project in 1998.

Erskine still faces conspiracy charges, but Branch pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of obstruction of justice last Thursday. US district court Judge Ronald Lew fined Branch $6000 and sentenced him to six months of home detention.

Boeing fired the two and agreed to pay a $615 million settlement to end a justice department investigation into its practices surrounding the bid process, and its relationship with a former Air Force procurement officer involved with the EELV program.

As a result of the settlement and admission by Boeing, the Air Force summarily awarded Lockheed the seven remaining launch contracts worth around $1 billion and suspended Boeing from launching rockets for 20 months.

Just this past week the two companies formed a new joint venture called the United Launch Alliance to administer all future launches for the US government.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.lockheed.com

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.06.25)

Aero Linx: International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA) We aim to be the most internationally respected independent authority on the subject of Airworthiness. IFA uniquely combi>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (05.06.25): Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF)

Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) The frequency band between 300 and 3,000 MHz. The bank of radio frequencies used for military air/ground voice communications. In some instances this may >[...]

ANN FAQ: Q&A 101

A Few Questions AND Answers To Help You Get MORE Out of ANN! 1) I forgot my password. How do I find it? 1) Easy... click here and give us your e-mail address--we'll send it to you >[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Virtual Reality Painting--PPG Leverages Technology for Training

From 2019 (YouTube Edition): Learning To Paint Without Getting Any On Your Hands PPG's Aerospace Coatings Academy is a tool designed to teach everything one needs to know about all>[...]

Airborne 05.02.25: Joby Crewed Milestone, Diamond Club, Canadian Pilot Insurance

Also: Sustainable Aircraft Test Put Aside, More Falcon 9 Ops, Wyoming ANG Rescue, Oreo Cookie Into Orbit Joby Aviation has reason to celebrate, recently completing its first full t>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC