As the Economist points out today, it’s quite a feat to push France’s attention-hungry president off the front pages these days. But a young low-level trader in Paris has managed to do just that.Last week it emerged that a rogue trader named Jérôme Kerviel has cost France's most venerable bank, Société Générale, more than $7-billion. For France, and indeed for all of Europe, Kerviel’s story has been captivating. Those at the top of the economic ladder see him as an evil genius, a scheming traitor who duped his vigilant employer by hiding his thieving through complex manoeuvring. Others, particularly on the French left, see him as a modern day Robin Hood, exposing the weaknesses of French capitalism.
Though SocGen, the biggest economic success story in a nation known for its mistrust of capitalism, has tried to portray the crime as genius in its deception, Kerviel’s own court testimony reveals that it was anything but. According to the French press, Kerviel has testified that his thieving began as early as 2005, merely by creating fake trades and pocketing the money himself. He also says it should have been obvious to his superiors because he was openly reporting making as much as €600,000 in a single day, a ludicrous amount for a trader to be making legitimately.
