By David Shepardson

(Reuters). A jury in Texas found a Boeing ex-chief technical pilot (NYSE:) innocent of lying to federal regulators about the company’s 737 MAX plane.

Mark Forkner (ex-pilot Boeing) was arrested in October for conspiring with U.S.-based airlines customers to steal tens of million dollars from Boeing.

The government alleged Forkner deceived the Federal Aviation Administration during its evaluation and certification of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplane.

According to records from courts and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Northern Texas, Forkner wasn’t found guilty on any count.

David Gerger was a Forkner attorney who in a statement, praises the “independent intelligent smart fair jury and judge.” Boeing and the FAA declined to comment.

Forkner had been sentenced on all counts to up 20 years, and he still maintained his innocence.

Forkner, a former flight controller for Boeing 737 MAX and the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was accused of providing the FAA Aircraft Evaluation Group “materially falsified, inaccurate, or incomplete information” regarding a new section of control flights.

MCAS was linked to the two fatal 737 MAX crash that claimed 346 lives. However, the government stated it didn’t charge Forkner with causing the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, but did not claim he did.

Prosecutors referred to an email Forkner had sent to a colleague, in which Forkner stated that he “basically (unknowingly), lied to regulators” regarding MCAS.

Two fraud cases related to MCAS were dismissed by a judge in February. They had to involve an airplane part and could not be proceed.

After reaching an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department regarding the 737 MAX, Boeing agreed in January 2021 to pay $2.5 billion in compensation and fines. The deferred prosecution agreement included a fine of $243.6 million and a $500 million crash-victim fund over fraud conspiracy charges related to the plane’s flawed design.

Boeing was hit with two major crashes that cost more than $20 billion. This led to the aircraft’s 20 month grounding, which ended in November 2020.

The Justice Department said the crashes “exposed fraudulent and deceptive conduct by employees of one of the world’s leading commercial airplane manufacturers.”

Peter DeFazio (chair of U.S. House Transportation Committee) stated that Forkner’s arrest “shouldn’t be the last of the accountability for that colossal, tragic failure.” He also argued that “senior leaders within Boeing are to blame for the culture concealment that eventually led to the 737 MAX crash.”

Forkner was the first person to be criminally charged in connection with MAX.