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JEROME KERVIEL, THE former Societe Generale SA employee convicted for unauthorised transactions leading to one of the biggest trading losses in history, faces prison after a French court rejected his appeal.
The Cour de Cassation, France’s highest appeals court, today rebuffed Kerviel’s efforts to overturn a 2012 verdict that found him guilty of abusing the bank’s trust, faking documents and entering false data into computers that resulted in a €4.9 billion loss.
The court, however, accepted Kerviel’s civil appeal that had sought to contest the bank’s charge that he was solely responsible for the loss, handing the former trader a partial victory. Details of the loss will be re-examined by a court in Versailles.
“We will continue to fight to show that the so-called Kerviel case was in fact the Societe Generale case,” David Koubbi, Kerviel’s lawyer said.
Kerviel is in Italy after he undertook a 1,400 km walk from Rome to Paris following a brief meeting with Pope Francis on 19 Februay
“He’s not on the run; he will be at the disposal of justice,” Koubbi, said in an interview last week.
Kerviel’s 2008 loss exceeded the corporate-and- investment- banking profit over the six years through 2013 at Societe Generale, France’s second-largest bank. Kerviel was called a “terrorist” by then-Chief Executive Officer Daniel Bouton.
Blind Eye
The Cour de Cassation considers legal issues involved in an initial appeal verdict.
Kerviel has argued at every trial that Societe Generale stealthily sold subprime mortgage investments as it liquidated his positions. While he admitted to exceeding trading limits, faking documents and entering false data into computers, Kerviel says his superiors turned a blind eye as long as his transactions made money.
Jerome Kerviel lost his appeal against a three-year jail term. (Pic: Patrice Pierrot/Newzule/PA Images)
Judges didn’t accept Kerviel’s version of the events in both a 2010 trial and a 2012 appeal.
Kerviel’s defence team has argued with the Cour de Cassation that prosecutors never did a detailed study of how Societe Generale sold off the positions.
Societe Generale has always dismissed claims that it hid other losses while unwinding Kerviel’s bets.
Pope’s Message
Kerviel left his job at a computer consulting firm in 2010 to focus on his appeal. The French courts have ordered him to pay back the €4.9 billion, although Societe Generale has indicated it’s realistic about the chance of Kerviel repaying the money.
In an interview last week, Kerviel said his trek from Rome was aimed neither at getting publicity and sympathy nor at keeping himself out of jail.
His walk is a personal journey aimed at bringing the message of Pope Francis’s November attack of the “tyranny” of financial markets. The Pope has criticized capitalism for its “idolatry of money.”
Kerviel, a native of Brittany who rose through the ranks to Societe Generale’s trading floor without having attended any of France’s elite schools, became something of a cult hero in the country in the aftermath of the 2008 loss.
There was a comic book, fan clubs and t-shirts supporting his cause. A poll taken after news of the loss broke showed 77 per cent of French respondents saw him as a “victim.”
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Can they not just take €5 a week of his dole and forget about it.
Any room on that walk for a few Irish Politicans. They conned us out of 35 billion for Anglo Irish bank
The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/03/financial-sector-greatest-parasite-human-history.html
“There is one issue whose role I think is overlooked in the mainstream media: the role the financial sector plays in exacerbating income inequality. In fact, I believe the financial sector is one of the prime causes, and at its current point is perhaps the greatest parasite in human history. It is sucking wealth from the productive sectors of the economy at an unprecedented rate…… The job of the finance sector is simply to manage existing resources. It creates nothing. Therefore, the smaller the financial sector is the more real wealth there is for the rest of society to enjoy. The bigger the financial sector becomes the more money it siphons off from the productive sectors.”
“The role the financial sector plays in exacerbating income inequality” – people and their selfish aims exacerbate inequality, the financial sector just happens to be a useful tool at present. In times past, birthrights and titles were used, in Ireland education levels are used and this is perceived to be justified, religion/race/nationality have all previously been used.
People are selfish, and in terms of wealth a great many people value relative wealth higher than real wealth. And even if the financial sector was massively altered or even disbanded, people would just find new ways to express and maintain their perceived superiority.
People once maintained their perceived superiority through slavery in the cotton fields but this obscenity was eventually dismantled.
The system which sees the 85 richest people in the world holding the same wealth as the poorest 3,500,000,000 also needs to be addressed and the financial sector is a major part of that problem.
At a guess, those 85 families were probably among the largest slave owners back in those days. Systems change, nobility remain.
France 1798?
What happened then? Some nobels finally put to death 9 years after the revolution :-P (only messing, easy mistake to make). But the French Revolution just succeeded in changing the nobility really, with Napoleon becoming emperor and his people being granted dynasties and principalities all over Europe. Seems self-interest & human selfishness could not be guillotined!
A tipping point is coming and the rich know it. The internet has allowed people access to information they never would have had before and this unsettles the upper classes as they rely on misinformation and propaganda to maintain their wealth and privilege and they rely on people not to question that information but the tables are turning slowly but surely and in the next few years i think it will finally spill over.People need to think for themselves.
The French Revolution was one of many steps towards moving western society towards eventual democracy. One of purposes of democracy to limit the power of the ‘nobility’ as you call them which is why those elites try to circumvent or subvert democracy at every opportunity.
They don’t try to circumvent and subvert democracy, they succeed with frightening regularity! What hope would a British political party stand if one of their pre-election promises was to break Murdoch’s hold on the media? Or an Australian party promising to come down hard on mining companies in relation to taxes and environmental responsibilities? Or in the US trying to take on Big Oil?
I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, but the financial system is but one tool used to keep the elite in their opulent lifestyles. And if something happens that it no longer serves this purpose for the elite, they will just use media, jobs, political pressure etc. to ensure they maintain their status. I don’t like it anymore than you, but it has been going on for generations and I have little hope my great grandchildren won’t be trying to find ways to make society more equal, life more fair, and the obscenely wealthy less influential!
I disagree. People are not inherently selfish, it’s the complex socio-economic/political systems in which we live that promote selfishness as something desirable. And it enslaves us. Freedom is equal to your needs.
That said, I agree with the main thrust of what you’re saying.
“Kerviel says his superiors turned a blind eye as long as his transactions made money” – very little doubt that this is true, but more fool him for not realising the consequences of his actions. His superiors stood to make if his positions were profitable, and if this was achieved by exceeding limits then those superiors were turning personal profits while Kerviel was taking all the risk (which is why they were turning blind eyes rather than expressly informing him to disregard limits).
It’s a dog eat dog world – I’m sure they loved him while he was making money, but if you’re breaking rules, and do so to take a 50bn long position on equity indices in a company with a market cap around 36bn, then you really should expect previously earned brownie points to be insufficient!
In short, a naive fool, but unlikely the main culprit in this debacle.
1400Km walk from Paris to Rome,
Did he ever think of putting out his Thumb?????
His thumb is probably still stuck in a pie…
Societe are hedging their bets – and are saying that he’ll get between 6 and 10 yrs !
my assistant was looking for form name several days ago and located a great service with lots of sample forms . If you are searching for a form too , here’s a http://pdf.ac/49Mwsy
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