A French appeals court on Friday ordered disgraced former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel to pay the bank 1 million euros in damages for multi-billion dollar losses he racked up from equity derivative trades.
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A lawyer for Societe Generale described the ruling as “completely satisfactory”.
“This is manageable”, David Koubbi, Kerviel’s lawyer, said after the ruling.
The court did not overturn Kerviel’s criminal conviction, but it found that Societe Generale itself bore most of the responsibility for the size of the losses, which the court said were worsened by the weaknesses of the bank’s internal oversight and control systems.
Previous rulings, since struck down, had made him liable to repay the full amount.
“Therefore, reparations for Societ Generale attributable to Jerome Kerviel should only amount to 1 million euros”.
Kerviel was found guilty of fraud in 2010 and, in addition to his huge fine, was sentenced to three years in prison though he ultimately spent only five months behind bars.
New court episodes are expected in Kerviel’s legal saga, which has captured the national imagination.
Separately, in June, a French labor court ordered SocGen to pay Kerviel 455,000 euros for wrongful dismissal, arguing the bank took too long to fire him after it knew of his misconduct.
He had always maintained that top brass were aware of his risky operations because they had earned the bank more than €1bn in 2007.
The case “used to be about 4.9 billion euros”.
Junior Budget Minister Christian Eckert reiterated that the government would be interested in recovering the tax and said that he, along with Finance Minister Michel Sapin had asked the French tax authorities to look into Friday’s court judgment.
In addition, Kerviel’s bid for a criminal re-trial is on hold after judges at France’s court of review and reassessment said in March they want to wait for inquiries into the use of forged documents, witness subordination and obtaining a ruling under false pretenses to run their course.
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The battle is also about image and reputation, both for the bank and Kerviel, who has tried to portray himself as a victim of an improperly regulated banking sector and a crusader against the ills of the financial world.
