French police to interview German EADS executive

Jul 8, 2008, 17:33 GMT

Dresden, Germany - French police investigating alleged insider trading in EADS shares by the cross-border company's own staff are to question a senior German executive, EADs said in Dresden Tuesday.

Andreas Sperl, the chief executive of an EADS unit that reconditions old planes for use as cargo jets, is the first currently serving officer at the group to come into the ambit of the inquiry.

French police believe senior staff of the company, which owns the planemaker Airbus, sold their shares at a high price just before serious setbacks were made public and depressed the shares' market value.

A spokesman for the Elbe Flugzeugwerke unit said Sperl would report to police in Paris 'soon.'

In a written statement, Sperl said, 'I am convinced that I acted in accord with the applicable laws and internal guidelines.' He said he was confident French investigators would agree.

A Dresden newspaper, the Saechsische Zeitung, was to report Wednesday that he was suspected of taking advantage of internal information when he sold some of his EADS shares in 2005 and 2006.

Sources said he was likely to arrive in Paris on Wednesday and might face similar treatment to that received last week by another German, a former Airbus chief executive, Gustav Humbert.

Humbert was put under formal investigation on similar allegations, but was released on bail after two days of questioning in detention.

Other senior EADS executives named in the inquiry include Frenchmen Noel Forgeard and Jean-Paul Gut.