Former EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard has been placed under formal investigation on suspicion of insider trading while at Europe's largest aerospace group, his lawyer said today.
The "shocked" 61-year-old former aerospace boss was freed on bail in the early hours of this morning on condition that he pay a sum yet to be specified, his lawyer Jean-Alain Michel said.
Mr Forgeard had been held in police custody for around 36 hours before appearing in front of judges late last night.
The judges are investigating the selling of EADS stock in 2006 by people inside the company, weeks before the Franco-German-Spanish company's Airbus unit unveiled a second tranche of delays to its A380 superjumbo.
The announcement of worsening delays in building the world's largest airliner wiped a quarter off the value of EADSshares in June 2006 and triggered Forgeard's resignation.
Mr Forgeard and other current and former executives have denied knowing about the A380 delays when exercising their right to trade stock in March 2006. EADS also has denied wrongdoing.
Mr Forgeard's lawyer said he had been cleared on a second count requested by prosecutors, that of misleading financial markets.
Being targeted for formal investigation in France is a step short of charges and does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial. Insider trading carries a maximum of two years in jail and a fine of up to 10 times the share trading profits.
Last month French markets regulator AMF wrapped up the exploratory phase of its own 18-month trading investigation and said it had passed a file on the activities of 17 current and former executives to prosecutors and its own sanctions service.
Core shareholders Lagardere and Daimler, which control EADS together with the French government, also were named in the AMF enquiry which looked at how much everyone knew of delays to the A380 and design problems on the A350.