Source: AFP Author: 07/03/2008
Subject Concerned: Government Aircraft
The German former chief executive of Airbus, Gustav Humbert, was charged on July 2 with insider trading at the plane manufacturer's parent company EADS, a legal source said.
Humbert, 58, was released on bail of EUR350,000 (US$555,000), the source said. He had been questioned in custody since June 30.
Former EADS chief executive Noel Forgeard and the company's former general manager, Jean-Paul Gut, have already been charged in the probe although both have denied any wrongdoing.
The French financial market regulator, AMF, in April said in a report that Humbert sold 160,000 shares in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company in November 2005, earning EUR1.685 million.
The German, who took over Airbus in June 2005 and resigned in July 2006, is suspected of having benefited from privileged information on EADS financial prospects.
In total, 17 French and German members and former members of EADS and its main subsidiary Airbus' management are suspected of insider trading by the French regulator.
These include the present head of Airbus, German Thomas Enders, the French head of a space engineering subsidiary EADS Astrium, Francois Auque, and another Airbus manager, Fabrice Bregier, formerly chief executive of Eurocopter.
The announcement in June 2006 of a six-month production delay on the new A380, the world's largest airliner, threw EADS and its aircraft unit into crisis.
The EADS share price fell 26 percent on the stock market and Airbus launched a restructuring programme to shed 10,000 jobs.