Business Notes INSIDER TRADING

"This affair will not be covered up." So promised Pierre Beregovoy, the French Finance Minister, as he announced a criminal probe last week into an insider-trading scandal that is causing major embarrassment to Francois Mitterrand's government. The suspected scheme was uncovered when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission noticed heavy trading in Triangle Industries, a U.S. holding company, in the days prior to the Nov. 21 announcement of the company's takeover by Pechiney S.A., a French metals conglomerate. Estimated profits by insiders who bought early: $10 million.

Tipped off by the SEC, the French Commission on Bourse Operations zeroed in on Mitterrand's friends Max Theret, 76, and Roger-Patrice Pelat, 70, who profited handsomely from purchases of Triangle stock just before the takeover became public. Because the Finance Ministry approved the deal before it was announced, the information could have leaked from the government. That possibility prompted the resignation last month of Beregovoy's chief of staff, Alain Boublil, who has denied any involvement.