Judgment in Versailles – As a billion-debt-to-implode – Süddeutsche.de

4.9 billion euros should pay back the stock trader Jérôme Kerviel to his employer. Now it is significantly less.

Leo Klimm, Versailles

In the Moment of his greatest triumph, Jérôme Kerviel seems frozen. Motionless, he looks at the judge, the just, he explains, Kerviel was only “partially responsible” for the loss of 4.9 billion euros, the Paris has large Bank Société Générale in early 2008, in a spectacular financial scandal suffered. The court sentence him to a compensation of one Million euros to the money house. Only a Million. According to previous case law, he had to replace the Bank, whose money he gambled once, the entire 4.9 billion euros. A monstrous, absurd high amount. Kerviel was alone to blame. Since Friday, everything is different. The Bank has to take on a violent defeat, to the even more billions could cost you in the result.

After the verdict, Kerviel must also only once, in the backyard of the court of appeal of Versailles, for a smoke. He had hoped for, probably even more. Then he says: “I hope, at some point, at zero Euro set suit long damage. I am of the opinion that I owe Société Générale nothing.”

It is a question of money, of course. And that the Bank had the nerve to Kerviel used successfully as the sole perpetrators single perpetrator, co-responsibility contributes to a billion speculation that brought you to the edge of the Ruins. In similar Affairs – for example, in the case of UBS, Goldman Sachs, or Citi, was also argued by the virtuoso Solo-gamers. In the case of Kerviel: He may have acted on your own. Solely responsible he is not. You take, for the reduction of the amount of compensation to scale, would be mainly the Bank.

blew up Since the scandal soon nine years, leads Kerviel with Société Générale a fierce battle in the courts and in the media. Kerviel, now 39 years old, is drawn from this fight. Deep wrinkles and dark rings around the eyes have dug in the face of the Ex-Traders. But Kerviel didn’t seem so ducked, like in the first processes, as he crouched on his defendant’s chair. There were processes against him. Today it is Vice versa: He is the one sued for the money in-house. He reached that the damages had to be negotiated because of the proven deficiencies in the internal controls of the Bank.

The silent young man sitting at the dealing Desk, and began at some point to bet much more on shares and derivatives, as it was allowed – up to 50 billion euros. To do this, he used the passwords of colleagues and sham of prescribed hedging transactions, to enrich, without, however, itself. Kerviel says the supervisor would have tolerated this silently as long as he made profit. Société Générale denies that. The affair cost the then chief Executive officer of the Job.

The Institute had to be with a tax bonus of around 2.2 billion euros from the state-supported. This money could, it must now refund perhaps. France’s Finance Ministry says it could call for the rescue of billion. The attorneys of Société Générale stir from: to justify the repayment, whether intentional fault of the Bank. What is not the case.

Kerviel says: “This is a scandal that never was an affair Kerviel, it was always an affair at Société Générale.” So, how is the money the house gave the myth of the alone to blame, he endeavors the myth of the David Kerviel against the Goliath of big Bank. To fit this narrative that he lost initially, all processes up to the sentencing to five years in prison, of which he had but few months to serve.

“The decision today gives me energy to continue the battle,” says Kerviel in Versailles. He is aiming for as a next step, the repeal of the criminal judgment against him. But here, the prospects are modest. Criminal Kerviel was convicted in all instances. And that he is not solely responsible, it is not the innocent.