Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel may face criminal charges

Gary Sattler — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:47:00 EST

Filed under: Law, Employees, Scandals, Headline News

Prosecutors investigating the fraudulent trading scandal involving Jérôme Kerviel and his antics at French bank, Société Générale, have determined there is strong evidence that a crime has been committed and are asking for preliminary charges to be filed. The filing of preliminary charges by a judge would clear the way for investigators to dig deeper into the matter to determine if the case shall be dropped or continue on to trial.

Defense attorney Elisabeth Meyer, speaking on behalf of Kerviel stated that he is being "thrown to the lions before being able to explain himself." Defense attorneys believe that Kerviel is being made a scapegoat in the wake of losses tied to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage meltdown. They claim that Kervial was just trying to be an exceptional trader. Too bad he couldn't have accomplished that above board.

The bank's CEO, Daniel Bouton rejects the notion that Kerviel is being used for cover. He called the idea "stupid", declaring that you can't "hide a hole by another hole." I would tend to agree with that thinking. The judge's pending approval of the filing of charges could clear the way to proving that Kerviel did indeed act with fraudulent intent. It is of no consequence whether or not Kerviel sought personal gain through his alleged misdeeds. It is of no help to him if he thought his actions were noble. What matters here is that he seems to have acted independent of the rules and then sought to cover his tracks in doing so.

Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel may face criminal charges originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$7.2 billion fraud costs J�r�me Kerviel (Facebook) friends

Zac Bissonnette — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:10:00 EST

Filed under: Scandals

If someone you know was on the front-page of every newspaper for a scheme that cost France's second-largest bank $7.2 billion, what's the first thing you'd do?

Exactly: Delete him as your friend on Facebook. According to DealBook, that's exactly what happened: Before the story broke, Jérôme Kerviel had 11 friends on Facebook. Now he's down to just one.

I'm surprised everyone is so quick to delete him: I would think it would be exciting to be Facebook friends with someone destined to live in infamy. I'd add him as a friend now, but something tells me he won't be logging on for awhile.

Meanwhile, numerous "Facebook groups" devoted to the former trader have emerged. My favorite has to be the one called "If 5billion persons join this group & give 1€ we save Jerome Kerviel career." The group's founder writes that, "If (and only IF) 4,9 billion persons join this group and IF each one give 1€, we can refund Société Générale and save Jerome Kerviel's career ... But the question is: should we?"

$7.2 billion fraud costs J�r�me Kerviel (Facebook) friends originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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