Heads Must Roll

Less than a week after securing a new customer for the ailing A380, Airbus is rocked by a scandal that just doesn’t seem to want to go away.

Whats interesting this time around is the list of people Le Figaro names.

Among executives named by Le Figaro for having allegedly sold shares between November 2005 and March 2006 are Tom Enders, Fabrice Bregier, Noel Forgeard, Arnaud Lagardere and Manfred Bischoff, Ralph Crosby, Tom Williams and John Leahy.

Sacrè bleu! I hear you scream.

Image courtesy Reuters/The Telegraph

Thats pretty much the cream of the crop at Airbus. The ironic thing is thus - Le Figaro is condemned by EADS for “leaking” this news and is also threatened with legal action. On the other hand, EADS says that the Le Figaro’s information is, and I quote, tantamount to “unfounded accusations”.

If unfounded, why the need to go the legal route? Hm, go figure!

Previously mentioned here, it is of no coincidence that Forgeard made a sweet number before the news of the A380 delay emerged. What’s worse is that EADS compounded their mistake by paying Forgeard off for his catalogue of errors and poor management.

Gallois was equally coy when asked by Bloomberg remarking only “I have no comment to make…because I have not read it and secondly because I did not know it would come out today and it is only preliminary.”

Just as EADS managed to finally coalesce its management team, the work seems to be undone by this stinging revelation of insider trading.

There’s no smoke without fire, as the old saying goes.

If any justice is to be meted out, regardless of how this story came into the public domain, given that the French state is a partner in EADS and is therefore technically accountable to the French electorate - heads must and have to roll over this scandal.

If heads do not roll, the biggest injustice is that justice will not have been done.

4 comments October 4th, 2007