MACON, France — President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that any wrongdoing uncovered at EADS, the parent company of Airbus at the center of a scandal over alleged insider trading, must be punished in full.
Any state misdeeds in the affair, which came to light a week ago, must be uncovered, Sarkozy said in his first remarks on the issue.
“I want to know the truth about what happened concerning the state,” Sarkozy told reporters during a visit to this town on the edge of the Burgundy region southeast of Paris.
While a major shareholder, the French government does not sit on the EADS board. Its interests are represented by the French defense and media conglomerate Lagardere, which holds a 7.5 percent stake.
Finance Minister Christine Lagarde on Friday instructed the ministry’s inspector general to examine Finance Ministry’s actions regarding EADS from the end of 2005 to June 2006. The report is due Thursday and Lagarde said it would be immediately made public.
A preliminary report by the Financial Markets Authority, or AMF, suggests there was “massive insider trading” at European Aeronautic Defence &Space Co. just as problems with the A380 superjumbo were becoming evident. The report, sent to Paris prosecutors, was based on a lengthy probe of share sales between November 2005 and March 2006 by 21 top managers.
Problems with the A380 and the midrange A350, and a profit warning, were publicly announced in June 2006, sending the EADS stock price crashing 26 percent in one day.
EADS shareholders Lagardere SCA of France and Germany’s DaimlerChrysler AG announced in March 2006 that they would reduce their stakes.
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