Société Générale Trader Says Boss Saw Illicit Deal

PARIS — Jérôme Kerviel, the former trader at the bank Société Générale, has told French investigators that an assistant on his desk conducted at least one large fictitious transaction last spring on their boss’s computer—as the boss looked on, according to a court document obtained on Thursday by The International Herald Tribune, cited in an article in the New York Times.

The testimony, according to the Times, was an indication that Kerviel was continuing to press his claim that his superiors knew that he was amassing trades that the bank later blamed for losses of the European equivalent of $7.1 billion dollars.

But according to the document, the supervisor, Eric Cordelle, reportedly denied Kerviel’s assertions in a hearing with investigating judges on March 6, saying that he did not have the necessary software on his computer, according to the Times.

On a second occasion, however, Cordelle reportedly admitted that he had witnessed Kerviel entering trades on the computer of a trainee and even confronted him, the Times said, but there was no indication that he ever followed up.

Legal specialists said on Thursday that it appeared unlikely that Kerviel’s request for release would succeed, according to the Times.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 3/14/08