May 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on

Thursday asked a judge to dismiss a criminal fraud charge

against Boeing ( BA ) stemming from two fatal 737 MAX plane

crashes that killed 346 people, saying it had reached agreement

with the planemaker.

Under the deal, the U.S. planemaker will avoid being branded

a convicted felon but it has agreed to pay an additional $444.5

million into a crash victims' fund that would be divided evenly

per crash victim on top of an additional $243.6 million fine.

Boeing ( BA ), which last year had agreed to plead guilty as part of a

deal, will pay $1.1 billion including the fine and compensation

to families and over $455 million to strengthen the company's

compliance, safety, and quality programs, the Justice Department

said, adding the deal "secures meaningful accountability,

delivers substantial and immediate public benefits, and brings

finality to a difficult and complex case whose outcome would

otherwise be uncertain."