Jérôme Kerviel, the trader accused of fake transactions costing Société Générale billions of euros, on Tuesday broke his silence to insist he would not be used as a “scapegoat”. In his first public comments in nearly two weeks, Mr Kerviel told Agence France Presse he had been “singled out” by the bank. “I am taking my share of responsibility, but I will not be the scapegoat…”, he said. Insisting he was “neither suicidal nor depressed’’, he said he “never had any personal ambition in this affair”. “The aim was to earn money for the bank…You lose your sense of the sums involved when you are in this kind of work…You get a bit carried away.” Meanwhile, SocGen’s board is expected to meet Wednesday night to discuss the conditions for its €5.5bn ($8bn) rescue fundraising, which could be launched as soon as Friday or next week – depending on market volatility. A formal launch early next week would allow for a two-week marketing period ahead of SocGen’s annual results Feb 21.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 5:42 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with Jerome Kerviel, SocGen. Edit this entry.