Air France Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta will be summoned next week before a judge who is investigating suspected misappropriation of funds at a security firm that worked with the airline, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

The lawyer, Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, said Spinetta denied any role in the affair.

Air France declined to comment on the matter.

The founder of Pretory, the security firm in the case, has been placed under official investigation for possible illegal employment, aggravated money-laundering and fraud.

Pretory clinched a contract with Air France to provide private security agents for the airline's flights after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In an investigation relating to the security firm, financial judge Herve Lourau is focusing on the possibility of "money-laundering by an organized group, illegal employment, complicity in passive corruption, influence peddling and fraud", Spinetta's lawyer said.

Spinetta's appearance is scheduled for next Tuesday.

"The misappropriations concern the Pretory company. I have not understood, after studying the case, what the criminal links with Air France, and even less Mr. Spinetta, could be," Versini-Campinchi said.

The case was opened in 2003, after fiscal authorities and the Finance Ministry's anti-fraud section voiced suspicion over Pretory's activities. The company declared bankruptcy that same year.