More dirt dug up on EADS scandal
Monday, October 8, 2007
FORMER French finance minister Thierry Breton may not have revealed the whole picture last week in a probe into the massive insider trading scandal at Airbus parent company EADS, French daily Le Monde reported on Saturday.
Breton was aware and even approved the purchase by the state-owned bank Caisse des Depots and Consignations (CDC) of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company shares owned by defence and media group Lagardere, Le Monde said, citing a CDC document it had obtained.
This purchase happened shortly before EADS subsidiary Airbus announced delays in its flagship A380 aircraft in June 2006 which led to a sharp fall in the EADS share price, prompting allegations of insider trading.
The document appears to contradict what Breton on Friday told a French Senate committee hearing on the scandal, saying he had not instructed CDC in buying EADS shares and that he had learned about the transaction via the press and was unhappy about it, Le Monde said.
"The state is beyond reproach in this affair" and "acted in an exemplary fashion", Breton had told the hearing.
But Le Monde says it had obtained the minutes from a supervisory board meeting of the CDC on July 12, 2006, which shows that Breton knew about the transaction and gave it the green light.
Interviewed by the paper, Breton said that on Friday he himself had "brought the minutes concerned to parliament's attention." He added that it was "a legal interpretation error."
Several top EADS executives and corporate shareholders Lagardere and Germany's DaimlerChrysler are suspected of illegally selling millions of euros in shares just before they announced major problems at the Airbus.
AFP
Breton was aware and even approved the purchase by the state-owned bank Caisse des Depots and Consignations (CDC) of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company shares owned by defence and media group Lagardere, Le Monde said, citing a CDC document it had obtained.
This purchase happened shortly before EADS subsidiary Airbus announced delays in its flagship A380 aircraft in June 2006 which led to a sharp fall in the EADS share price, prompting allegations of insider trading.
The document appears to contradict what Breton on Friday told a French Senate committee hearing on the scandal, saying he had not instructed CDC in buying EADS shares and that he had learned about the transaction via the press and was unhappy about it, Le Monde said.
"The state is beyond reproach in this affair" and "acted in an exemplary fashion", Breton had told the hearing.
But Le Monde says it had obtained the minutes from a supervisory board meeting of the CDC on July 12, 2006, which shows that Breton knew about the transaction and gave it the green light.
Interviewed by the paper, Breton said that on Friday he himself had "brought the minutes concerned to parliament's attention." He added that it was "a legal interpretation error."
Several top EADS executives and corporate shareholders Lagardere and Germany's DaimlerChrysler are suspected of illegally selling millions of euros in shares just before they announced major problems at the Airbus.
AFP
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