PARIS, FRANCE - FORMER EADS general manager Jean-Paul Gut was charged late on Tuesday with insider trading, the second top executive to face legal action for stock option dealings at the European aerospace giant, a judicial source said.

Gut, 46, allegedly sold 1.7 million euros (S$3.56 million) in shares just months before the Airbus unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company revealed production delays with its A380 superjumbo.

The former executive was released after posting bail of 400,000 euros (S$849,242) and ordered to report regularly to police, the source said on Wednesday.

He was taken into custody on Monday by the French financial crime unit looking into allegations that 17 executives and shareholders at EADS had privileged information when they traded their stock options before the delays became public knowledge in June 2006.

Gut, who left EADS in June of last year, was charged nearly three weeks after EADS former co-chief executive Noel Forgeard was indicted in the probe.

Forgeard, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been released after posting bail of one million euros.

Gut allegedly sold his shares in November 2005 and March 2006, bagging a total of 1.7 million euros, according to a report by the AMF financial markets regulator.

The former executive, who was responsible for marketing, strategy and international affairs at EADS, appeared before two French judges late Tuesday who ordered him to pay bail and set conditions for his release. -- AFP