kerviel

Kerviel did not deny he took risky bets and lied to cover them up but claimed his superiors knew what he was doing.

If SocGen's share price today is underperforming its French banking peers, this seems to have little to do with Mr Kerviel and his legacy.

Kerviel's lawyer said he would immediately appeal the verdict, which he said was "senseless" and cleared the bank of all blame.

So far, few leads have emerged to indicate that Mr. Kerviel had any assistance as he made massive, unauthorized trades at the bank.

Kerviel's lawyer said he had not committed embezzlement, had "not stolen a single cent" and was "just doing his job" .

Kerviel's lawyer said he would appeal his conviction , and the financial damages are likely to be on hold while an appeal is underway.

Last month, Societe Generale said in an internal report that it had found no evidence that Mr. Kerviel had accomplices .

Mr Kerviel, who has become something of a popular hero in France for outwitting fat-cat bankers, is appealing against the decision.

Mr Kerviel did not make money for himself by his trading.

Reports say Mister Kerviel found a way to hide the fact that he bet only on stock prices rising.

The lawyer said Mister Kerviel told him he had started his activities at the end of two thousand five.

Mister Kerviel worked in a part of the bank that was supposed to take on little risk.

Rather than sticking to his assigned role as a lowly arbitrage trader, Mr Kerviel tried to become a star.

SocGen indicated it had put the turbulence caused by the fallout over Kerviel behind it.

The bank said Mister Kerviel took measures to avoid its risk controls.

The executive raised questions over commissions paid to Mr Bakir on at least four cash equities trades for Mr Kerviel.

Unless Kerviel had database administrative privileges, his suspicious activity would have been logged.

Mr Kerviel cleverly concealed the bets he was making with a series of offsetting transactions with fictional counterparties.

The bank said Kerviel acted alone and egregiously in taking unauthorized positions worth 50 billion euros that cost 4. 9 billion to unwind.

Kerviel allegedly circumvented internal reconciliation checks by gaining access to databases and adjusting values to cover his trades.

Police have been hunting for possible accomplices in the case, poring over Mr. Kerviel's trading records.

Kerviel's conviction today on charges of breach of trust, forgery, and unauthorized computer use also included a lifetime ban on trading.

Mister Kerviel's job was to place bets that indexes would both rise and fall.

So perhaps the Kerviel trial is after all a diversion, albeit very embarrassing for the large French bank.

On January 28th Mr Kerviel was placed under formal investigation for abuse of trust, breaching computer security and falsifying documents.

No further action was taken even though Mr Kerviel's explanations "lacked credibility" , according to the employee.

If Kerviel is freed to work, he'll make at least the French minimum wage of 1, 343. 77 a month, according to Eurostat.

Mr Kerviel has already acquired Facebook fan clubs, name recognition and many sympathisers in France.

"We have 800 traders here in Paris and no others did what [Mr Kerviel] did, " he told the Financial Times.

Mr Kerviel's limited holidays and late nights should also have raised red flags.

Kerviel's actions were genius, evil perhaps.

"The detention is going very well. (Kerviel) is talking about the things he has been accused of, " he added.

The irony is that when the Kerviel scandal erupted in January 2008, the subprime crisis and all its consequences had hardly begun.

That is what Mr Kerviel's former bosses, most of whom are either out of a job already or soon will be, think.

At that pace, it would take Kerviel nearly 304, 000 years to repay his fine.

In June last year a trader who worked on the same floor as Mr Kerviel committed suicide.