Rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel tells court Soc Gen suffered no losses

French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel on Thursday claimed that the French bank Société Générale never lost about five billion euros over his high-risk trading, but a court in Paris rejected his plea for an audit.

Reuters/Charles Platiau

An employment tribunal rejected his request for an audit of the bank's claim that it lost 4.9 billion euros over his deals.

Kerviel was sentenced to three years in prison in October 2010 for breach of trust, forgery and entering false data for unauthorised deals which threatened to bankrupt the bank, one of the biggest in Europe.

Kerviel is pursuing Société Générale in a Paris employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, claiming his managers knew what he was doing and turned a blind eye as long as profits flowed in.

Appearing before the court, he urged it to order an expert enquiry into the bank's claims of losses.

"I know there were no losses, Société Générale never lost five billion euros," he said, noting that no evidence of the bank's losses had been presented during his criminal trials.

But the court turned down his request and ordered him to reappear for another audience in March 2014.

Last October, an appeals court rejected an attempt by Kerviel to overturn his conviction. He remains out of prison while waiting for his case to be reviewed by the Court of Cassation, France's top appeals court.