RSS feedJerome Kerviel
’SocGen, La Banque Clown
Dominique Pauthe, who led the three-judge panel in Paris deciding on the guilt of Jérôme Kerviel, has made his court a laughing stock by meeting prosecution demands that this country boy from Brittany “repay”
Did Socgen use ETFs to liquidate Kerviel positions?
Jerome Kerviel stood accused by Société Générale of taking mass positions in DAX, CAC and Eurostoxx futures; positions which the bank later had to liquidate at a well publicised cost of €4.9bn over the end of January 2008.
What is it with SocGen types and alleged market abuse?
Jean-Pierre Mustier, SocGen’s former head of investment banking and the man who called Jérôme Kerviel a liar, has been fined for insider trading by the French market regulator.
Background: Mustier quit SocGen in August 2009 after France’s Autorité des marchés financiers opened proceedings against him,
Anatomy of an emergency unwind
The case of Socgen’s rogue trader Jerome Kerviel heads into its tenth day, with ever more insightful snippets of information being unveiled regarding the bank’s trading practices.
On Tuesday, for example,
Kerviel’s cash positions
Some interesting details are emerging from the trial of Société Générale’s rogue trader Jerome Kerviel in Paris, now in its sixth day.
For one, the defence is trying hard to prove that Kerviel’s direct management was in-the-know about many of his unhedged positions.
Kerviel speaks: traders, know thyselves
Roguish trader turned novelist – ‘L’Engrenage, Mémoires d’un trader’ – Jérôme Kerviel has some advice for his peers on the all-important annual review.
In an extract from his book featured on eFinancialCareers on Thursday,
Taleb on the fallacy of “too big to fail” and economies of scale
Nassim “Black Swans? Yeah, That Was Me” Taleb released a new paper on financial institutions over the weekend, titled “Too Big to Fail, Hidden Risks, and the Fallacy of Large Institutions”.
Extract (emphasis FT Alphaville’s):
Beware instant messaging: E-discovery leaves nowhere to hide
To many, “e-discovery” still sounds like an internet start-up, although the term – short for “electronic discovery” – is rapidly becoming commonplace, especially in the finance world, where rogue traders and rumour mongers are prompting more focus on e-surveillance and a company’s ability to find the right electronic documents to respond to a lawsuit.
Kerviel to sue SocGen
Jérôme Kerviel, the trader accused of losing Société Générale €5bn (£3.9bn), is to sue his former employer for unfair dismissal, reports The Times. In the latest twist to a scandal which won him legions of French fans,
Court frees SocGen trader Kerviel
Jérôme Kerviel, the Société Générale trader whose allegedly unauthorised trades cost the bank €4.9bn ($7bn), was released from prison Tuesday after being granted bail under strict conditions by a Paris appeal court.
Les mecanismes et la chronologie de la fraude
It’s “Mission Green” mes amis.
That is, the preliminary findings on the activities of rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel – as investigated by the Inspection Generale of Société Générale.
The report in full for all francophones,
Kerviel’s huge losses may have stretched back to last summer
SocGen’s alleged rogue trader, Jérôme Kerviel, was making a €2.2bn loss as long ago as July 2007 using unauthorised trades, his spokesman has claimed, raising more questions about the French bank’s trading room supervision.
SocGen’s rogue problem – was Kerviel, at 31, too old?
Lex tackles the matter with the observation that youth and successful trading ideas tend to go hand in hand, citing accompanying evidence that recently-established hedge funds tend to do better than old ones.
The Kerviel messages
The lawyers may have dismissed these as irrelevant. But the instant messages between SocGen trader Jérôme Kerviel and his broker at Newedge, Moussa Bakir, make interesting reading.
The FT’s extracts are below.
SocGen developments
The lawyer for Jérôme Kerviel has accused Société Générale of complicity in the scandal that has cost the bank €4.9bn . “The question we ask is: can we really speak of fraud when it seems that everyone knew what Jérôme was doing?”
Moussa Bakir: the Kerviel accomplice?
Just up on FT.com: Moussa Bakir, an employee of Fimat, a company that was Société Générale’s brokerage arm, was being interviewed by French financial police on Friday on suspicion of links with Jérôme Kerviel.
Kerviel accused of profit cover-up
Jérôme Kerviel, the trader accused of masterminding a record rogue trading loss, was caught in the process of trying to cover up a hidden €1.4bn ($2bn) profit he made for Société Générale last year,
Kerviel: ‘I will not be made a scapegoat’
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,
Le naff Jerome Kerviel web industry
Are we missing something? Or are the web merchands chasing a quick buck on the back of SocGen’s alleged rogue trader truly witless?
Some are citing the existence of Facebook groups and dedicated sites like jeromekerviel.com as proof that this “super-trader…has become a world hero.”
The real scandal at SocGen: Who knew what and when?
As Jérôme Kerviel continues his extraordinary metamorphosis into what The Times describes as “something of a global folk hero, with songs, videos and internet sites devoted to him,” the campaign by his lawyers to portray him as the victim of unscrupulous employers is gaining traction.
As Kerviel faces charges, claims of a promised €300,000 bonus surface
The alleged SocGen rogue, Jerome Kerviel, was due to be charged with four counts on Monday, including abuse of trust and attempted fraud. Paris prosecutor Jean-Claude Marin said the trader had “cooperated fully,”
SocGen: the details – and more questions
As last week’s official version of events raised as many questions as it answered, Société Générale on Sunday was forced to put out this communique – dubbed an “explanatory note about the exceptional fraud.”
A German take on French banking woes
Der Spiegel has a handy run down of what the German press make of Le Rogue Trader at SocGen.
Handelsblatt:
The case threatens to intensify the dramatic loss of trust currently hitting the financial sector due to the US subprime crisis.
SocGen accused of creating smokescreen
Lawyers for Jérôme Kerviel, the French trader accused by Société Générale of massive fraud, hit back at the bank on Sunday, accusing it of creating a “smokescreen” to divert attention from other losses,
Insider alert after SocGen – and a squeeze on the middle office
Who benefited from the Soc Gen rogue trader?
That’s the next big questions for regulators – and they seem set on looking beyond the obvious candidate, Nick Leeson, who flogged his insights to the highest
Jerome Kerviel: CV and planetary alignment
Still hungry for details on the man of the moment? Step right this way, sir.
As an appetiser, we’d recommend a visit to the Wall Street Weather blog, which looks at business through the prism of astrology.
The Great Kerviel Conspiracy
Welcome to the premier resource on the world wide internet for all stuff relating to Societe General’s dodgy alleged €5bn rogue trader fraud.
We want to keep it up to date as much as possible, so
Rogue watch: What the media say
Rarely has one relatively junior trader attracted so much attention — Nick Leeson may disagree – but the media on Friday appear to have done an unprecedented job of drawing up “rogue trader galleries”
Rogue trader costs SocGen €5bn
A lone rogue trader was on Thursday night being blamed for the biggest fraud in investment banking history after Société Générale, a pillar of French finance, revealed his actions had cost it €4.9bn (£3.6bn) and forced an emergency €5.5bn cash call on shareholders.
FT Alphaville exclusive: SocGen’s fraud trader named
FT Alphaville can reveal that the trader at the centre of the financial scandal engulfing Société Générale is 31-year-old banker Jerome Kerviel.
Mr Kerviel, who worked in the bank’s Delta One products team in Paris,