Druyun pleaded guilty to inflating the price of the contract to favor her future employer and to passing information on the competing Airbus A330 MRTT bid (from EADS).
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In 1993 Darleen Druyun was investigated for her involvement in a plan to speed up payments by the Air Force to McDonnell Douglas.
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In September 2003, responding to critics who argued that the lease was vastly more expensive than an outright purchase, the United States Department of Defense announced a revised lease.
Boeing won the original competition but the project was on hold for several years due to a corruption scandal involving Darleen Druyun.
Boeing terminated Mr. Sears on November 24, 2003 as the result of corruption allegations relating to the improper hiring of Darleen Druyun.
This occurred due to an investigation of a former procurement staffer, Darleen Druyun, over corruption charges; he offered her work at Boeing while she was still a U.S. Government employee, a violation of Boeing ethics.
The investigation lead to a major corruption scandal which lead to successful prosecutions of Boeing's CFO Michael M. Sears and senior air force personal Darleen Druyun and Boeing being forced to deduct about a half-billion dollars in payments required under a global settlement agreement with the Justice Department.