Wednesday, June 18, 2008

More EADS Insider Trading Charges

Bloomberg today reports that the former number two official at EADS, Chief Operating Officer Jean-Paul Gut,was charged with insider trading for selling shares before the company disclosed problems on Airbus' A380 superjumbo airliner and A400M military cargo plane.

According to the Bloomberg article:
Gut, 46, was arraigned on a preliminary count of insider trading by investigating judges and released on bail of 400,000 euros ($619,000), said Isabelle Montagne, a spokeswoman for Paris prosecutors. Gut is the second former EADS executive charged in the case.
Well, we all know he can afford the bail money.

The article also states that:
The probe is one of two over the timing of disclosures that wiring problems would delay the 525-seat A380s introduction. As many as 17 current and former executives at EADS and its Airbus unit are under investigation in a related Autorite des Marches Financiers civil case....

The Paris prosecutors opened the inquiry in 2006, after EADS shareholders filed a lawsuit claiming insider trading and the French market watchdog began a probe into shares sold ahead of announcements that Lagardere and Daimler were each selling 7.5 percent stakes in EADS and about delays in the A380 program at EADS's Airbus SAS unit.
The New York Times has already reported that, the CEO of EADS North America Ralph Crosby, who was the main architect of the KC-30 Air Force tanker contract partnership, has been identified as one of the 17 officials under investigation.

In related news the Wall Street Journal reported that last Friday the EADS insider trading scandal was introduced in American courts:
Two U.S. law firms filed suits Friday in federal court in New York's Southern District, alleging insider trading in shares of EADS and that managers and shareholders misled investors. Both are requesting class-action status. The U.S. cases come on top of continuing investigations by French prosecutors and stock-market regulators into alleged insider trading at the company.
The Wall Street Journal article states that although EADS shares are not registered to trade in the U.S.
...attorneys in the two U.S. cases contend that the global aerospace giant conducts enough business in the U.S., and has enough U.S. investors, to merit filing complaints in the U.S.

One suit, filed by New York law firm Dreier LLP on behalf of an individual European shareholder, Danielle Bobin, alleges insider trading by Lagardère and Daimler. Both sold large blocks of EADS shares in April 2006, just weeks before EADS announced major delays in its flagship A380 project. The suit also targets two senior EADS managers who are U.S. citizens.

The other complaint was filed by San Diego law firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP on behalf of an unnamed institutional investor and individual investors in the U.S. Its suit targets EADS and some top managers, alleging they misled investors about the state of the A380 program while selling EADS shares, the law firm said in a statement.

4 comments:

Scott Hamilton said...

Don't forget about the people who went to jail and had to resign over the Boeing tanker scandal in 2004. That's why we're here now.

Anonymous said...

Will the Real People Of all Corp That do not have Dirty hands Please stand up. OK Now we have it Everyone is sitting Down.

Anonymous said...

Northrop standing and waiving one hand and it's corporate wide ethics policy in the other - be careful NG ethics has teeth and holds everyone accountable from the CEO, Board of Directors to the pipe fiter in the shipyard!

Anonymous said...

Yea i am shure they have an ethics policy in place like everyone elts but i am positive they have done there share of something dirty . And if you believe they are so clean you need to come out of the cave and see daylight.Corp wide policy that everyone signs does not mean crap unless everyone abides and sorry with 150,000 or more workers there just like at boeing well some get caught some dont but please do not try to fool anyone that there ^%$#$ don't stink PALEESE