Background
Darleen Druyun was the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management from 1993 to 2002. She awarded at least four contracts to Boeing in order to get her daughter and son-in-law jobs with the company. She even awarded an Air Force contract to Boeing during the same time period that she was trying to get a $250,000-a-year job for herself at Boeing with Michael Sears, the Chief Financial Officer for Boeing. The contract was a $21 billion deal for the Air Force to buy or lease up to 100 Boeing 767 planes to use for aerial refueling. She gave Boeing thousands of documents from their rival Lockheed Martin so that they could meet the requirements to receive the contract. Druyun and Sears agreed not to tell anyone about their discussions about the contract and the job. The Defense Department is investigating whether or not Boeing earned the contracts that Druyun awarded to the company.
Druyun retired from the Air Force in late 2002. She started her new job working for Boeing in January 2003. She was the vice president and deputy general manager of Boeing’s missile defense systems She was fired from Boeing in November of that year, when ethical concerns about the contracts she awarded to Boeing, while she was with the Air Force, came out into the open.
Druyun pled guilty, was sentenced to serve nine months in a medium-security prison in Marianna, Florida, and had to pay a fine of $5,000. After her prison term, she served 150 hours of community service over three years as well as seven months of house arrest.
Michael Sears, who denied doing anything wrong, served four months in prison for his involvement in the scandal.
Phil Condit, the CEO of Boeing, resigned from the company within a week of Michael Sears being fired from Boeing. It is still not known whether Condit actually resigned or was dismissed from the company. Although it is said to not have anything to do with Druyun and Sears, many view Condit’s resignation as Boeing’s way to help repair the company’s reputation.
Druyun acted unethically because she was negotiating for a job at a company while she was deciding whether or not the company would receive a $21 billion contract to lease planes to the Air Force, who she represented at the time. She negotiated a higher salary and other perks in exchange for the contracts she gave Boeing. It was also unethical of her to have given Boeing contracts in exchange for jobs for her daughter and son-in-law. She was looking out for her own best interest instead of doing her job without bias and because of that, the Air Force may not have received the best deal on the planes that they leased, or may not have received the best planes it could have gotten. That may have raised the cost for the Air Force, or may end up putting men and women in the service in danger. Michael Sears also acted unethical when he took the contracts from Lockheed Martin from Druyun. Phil Condit did not act unethically and in fact, acted selflessly by resigning to take the focus off of the company’s ethical issues.