A former junior trader forFrance's second-largest bank who was ordered Wednesday to pay back a staggering€4.9 billion (about $7 billion) in damages to his ex-employer is paintinghimself as the victim of a financial system that runs on greed.
Only the Bill Gates or the WarrenBuffetts of the world could come up with the breathtaking sum an appeals courtdemanded Jerome Kerviel reimburse to Societe Generale as punishment forcommitting one of the biggest trade frauds in history. Kerviel says he willfight back with a new appeal to France's highest court.
The court upheld in full the initial2010 guilty verdict and sentence, which includes a three-year prison term,against the 35-year-old rogue trader.
He sees himself not as a fraudster butas a victim of a system that turned a blind eye to his colossal positions inlate 2007 and early 2008 as long as they made money for the bank.
Hours after the verdict, Kervielannounced his plan to appeal, which he has until Monday to file.
"I will continue to fight," hetold RTL radio. "I think the judgment is protecting Societe Generale."
Kerviel called on people in banking,notably Societe Generale employees, who have information to come forward andserve as witnesses. "I'm looking for the truth to be told."
Kerviel, who never profited personallyfrom his unauthorized trades, said he had thought the court might acquit him.
"I absolutely didn't expect thisruling," he said in his first comments after slipping out the side door ofthe courtroom. "What happened today is a call for me to put a bullet in myhead," he said. He added, when asked, that he does "absolutelynot" envision suicide.
The lawyer for Societe Generale, JeanVeil, called the verdict "a great satisfaction," particularly thecourt's demand the former trader reimburse the €4.9 billion ($7 billion at thetime) that it cost the bank to unwind his astronomical positions.
Still, Veil acknowledged that fullrepayment would, in all likelihood, be out of the question.
Banned for life from working in thefinancial industry, Kerviel was making €2,300 ($3,150 at the time) as acomputer consultant after leaving the bank. Societe Generale had paid him lessthan €100,000 ($155,700) with bonuses, a modest sum for what he earned for thebank in 2007 when he amassed €1.4 billion in profits for the bank.
"Societe Generale will look at itrealistically," Veil told reporters. However, he indicated the bank couldtake over royalty earnings from a book Kerviel published this year about thescandal as well as any income he might earn from movie deals.
"It would have been indecent forMr. Kerviel to be able to preserve revenues coming from the exploitation of hisfraud," Veil said.
The appeals court upheld the October2010 conviction of Kerviel for forgery, breach of trust and unauthorizedcomputer use for covering up bets worth nearly €50 billion — more than themarket value of the entire bank. It sentenced him to a five-year prison term —with two years suspended — ordered he pay €4.9 billion in damages.
A new appeal to the Court of Cassationwould suspend carrying out the sentence.
Kerviel's lawyer, David Koubbi, calledthe verdict "absolutely lamentable."
The argument turns broadly on who is thevictim in the case.
The Societe Generale lawyer pointedlyreferred to the bank as "the victim." But for many others, the realvictim was the trader, who maintains he was a cog in a financial system thatruns on greed and profits.
A colleague from Societe Generale whotestified on Kerviel's behalf said the court didn't take into account others atthe bank who surely knew about Kerviel's risky bets.
A junior futures trader such as Kerviel"could in no case do what he did without being seen" by hissuperiors, Philippe Hoube said after the verdict. "If justice had playedits role, they wouldn't have sentenced him so heavily," he said.
An internal report by the bank has saidmanagers failed to follow up on 74 different alarms about Kerviel's activities.
By the time his trades were discoveredin early 2008, when banks were sliding into a global crisis, had amassed lossesof almost €5 billion on those bets in one of the biggest trade frauds inhistory.
The sentence — a five-year prison term,with two years suspended, plus the payback of all the losses he incurred —shocked many in the French public. After a global financial crisis that manyblamed on big banks, many still believe Kerviel's claim that he was a victim ofan unjust system.
"I'm someone who believed in Frenchjustice. But one day I understood that there is justice for the powerful andanother for ordinary citizens," said Jean Debrex, a retiree who attendedWednesday's audience.
A few of the bank's executives resignedin the scandal's aftermath, including longtime Chairman Daniel Bouton.Kerviel's superiors were questioned in the probe, but none of them facedcharges.
The bank says Kerviel made bets onfutures contracts on three European equity indices. It said at the time thathis net position appeared unremarkable because he balanced his real trades withfictitious transactions.