A French court has ordered a trial for carmaker Daimler AG and industrial conglomerate Lagardere SCA as well as executives for Airbus parent EADS in an insider trading investigation dating back to 2006.
In addition to the two companies, which were shareholders in EADS, seven current or former EADS and Airbus executives were ordered to stand trial. They include John Leahy, the current Airbus chief operating officer, and Noel Forgeard, the former co-CEO, Paris prosecutor spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said.
At the heart of the investigation is what executives and board members knew about profit-damaging technical problems with the A380 superjumbo and mid-range A350 aircraft when they sold shares or exercised stock options worth millions in 2005 and 2006.
When the A380 problems were made public in June 2006, EADS shares plunged 26 per cent in one day and the company sank into months of management troubles.
Technical problems were discussed at meetings February 17 and March 1, 2006 before the major share sales.
