The inquiry into the biggest rogue trading scandal in financial history widened when police investigating the alleged fraud at Société Générale brought in a second trader for questioning yesterday.
The trader is Moussa Bakir, an employee of Newedge, the broking firm partly owned by SocGen. Police on Thursday raided the firm's Champs Elysées offices and confiscated Mr Bakir's computer and hard drive.
Jérôme Kerviel, the man accused of building up unauthorised positions on three European markets totalling €50 billion, was taken into custody yesterday when a judge ruled he should be held in prison while the investigation continues.
The latest police raid was prompted by SocGen's internal investigators, who are trying to determine how Mr Kerviel's trading could have escaped notice for more than two years.
SocGen has maintained that Mr Kerviel acted on his own. But he has told police that it was impossible that his supervisors could have been entirely in the dark about his activities.
It is understood that on Wednesday they discovered previously undetected communication between the two men, and alerted the police.
Colleagues said it was well known that Mr Bakir, who is believed to have specialised in trading on the Euro Stoxx, Dax and FTSE indices, had traded for Mr Kerviel. - (Financial Times/ Bloomberg)
