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.

The Guardian is reporting that AOL has put its French and German businesses up for sale, as hinted during the earnings conference call Wednesday morning [Sarah Gilbert's note: scroll all the way to the bottom and note: Wayne and Dick chuckled at the question from Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet! Chuckled! They are so called out!].

The company will keep its British business, and continue to operate Internet portals in Germany and France.  According to the paper, AOL's operations in both countries have struggled against France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. Citigroup is said to have been retained to sell the businesses, which analysts estimate to be worth a total of €700m (£480m).