Jérôme Kerviel, the former Société Générale trader, was found guilty of breach of trust and other charges Tuesday and sentenced to at least three years in prison by a Paris court.
The court also ordered Kerviel to pay civil damages of 4.9 billion euros, or about $6.7 billion. The total sentence term was of five years with two years as suspension. He was sentenced on charges of breach of trust, forgery and unauthorized use of the bank’s computers. Prosecutors requested a four year detention but the court only agreed for three.
Kerviel's conviction came after two years of lengthy investigations, court proceedings and media speculations. He was accused of betting up to 50 billion euros in unauthorized open positions on his trading book in late January 2008. The rogue bets robbed Société Générale of 4.9 billion euros, or about $7 billion at the time.
Kerviel accepted forging of documents in the court and admitted that he entered fake trades to veil his activities. He, however, also put the blame on his bosses, who, he said were complacent during the entire episode and even tacitly approved his bets as long as he was brining profits.
“My objective was to help it make money,” he said in a court testimony.
Kerviel was not new to betting when he was caught in 2008 as he had been doing that for more than two years. The bank has acknowledged that it booked up to 1.4 billion euros in profit in the fourth quarter of 2007; mainly from Kerviel's unauthorized dealings.
