The former number two at EADS, ex-strategy chief Jean-Paul Gut, has been placed under formal investigation in a French probe into suspected insider trading, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
The move comes two weeks after Noel Forgeard, the former co-chief executive of EADS, Europe's largest aerospace group and the parent company of Airbus, was placed under investigation, which is a step short of formal charges but can lead to trial.
Both have denied wrongdoing.
French police are investigating claims that EADS' senior executives and industrial shareholders knew of the increasing threat of delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo when they sold shares in 2005 and 2006.
The announcement of worsening delays in building the world's largest airliner wiped a quarter off the value of Airbus parent EADS shares in June 2006.
Gut, who resigned from EADS in June 2007, had been questioned by police since Monday. His lawyers said on Tuesday that Gut had asked to be interviewed in order to clear his name.
As well as Forgeard and Gut, 15 other current and former executives, along with EADS shareholders Lagardere and Daimler, have been cited in a report to prosecutors on suspected insider trading by France's market watchdog AMF.
All have denied doing anything wrong and EADS on Monday reiterated that it had communicated transparently about progress on key industrial programs.
In the United States, two law firms have submitted class-action law suits on behalf of US investors who bought EADS shares in Europe in 2005 and 2006, claiming they had been duped.
