FORMER TRADER Jérome Kerviel began his appeal yesterday against a three-year prison sentence for his role in France’s biggest rogue trading scandal, arguing he was not responsible for a €4.9 billion loss at banking group Société Générale.
Mr Kerviel (35) hit back at SocGen over the 2010 conviction that held him responsible for massive, risky bets uncovered in 2008. He claims his superiors knew what he was doing.
SocGen, for its part, denies any part in the trades.
“I am not responsible for this loss . . . I always behaved according to rules set by my superiors,” Mr Kerviel said in the Paris court.
At stake for SocGen is whether magistrates will once again exonerate the bank of any responsibility for Mr Kerviel’s massive trading positions, which dealt a blow to its reputation and forced it to raise capital.
Mr Kerviel portrayed SocGen as having imposed little oversight on its traders, saying he was never told what his official remit was and that his desk regularly flouted its €125 million limit. “My mandate was to make money for the bank,” he told the court.
SocGen’s representative in court, however, said his roles in market-making and arbitrage were clearly defined and that individual traders were responsible for staying within their limits.
