A Paris court sentenced former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel to three years in prison for his role in one of the largest trading scandals in history and ordered him to repay the $6.69 billion loss suffered by the French bank.
The Wall Street Journal reports the verdict lays the entire blame of the January 2008 trading debacle on the 33-year-old, dismissing his argument that SocGen had turned a blind eye to years of unauthorized trades.
Yet SocGen hasn't escaped sanction; France's banking commission fined the bank €4 million by for not having adequately supervised Kerviel.
"The absence of proper supervision on the part of the bank should not have been interpreted as a tacit green light to engage in wild speculation," Judge Dominique Pauthe told the courtroom before an expressionless Kerviel. In convicting Kerviel of breach of trust, forgery, and unauthorized computer use, the judge also handed Kerviel a lifetime trading ban, according to the Journal.
