Ex-trader Jerome Kerviel began his appeal on Monday against a three-year prison sentence for his role in France's biggest rogue trading scandal, arguing he was not responsible for a 4.9 billion euro ($6.1 billion) loss at banking group Societe Generale.
Wearing an open-necked white shirt for his court appearance and showing little emotion, Kerviel hit back at SocGen over the 2010 conviction that held him responsible for massive, risky bets uncovered in 2008.
The 35-year-old trader claims his superiors knew what he was doing. SocGen denies any part in the trades. "I am not responsible for this loss ... I always behaved according to rules set by my superiors," Kerviel said in court in Paris. At stake for SocGen is whether magistrates will once again exonerate the bank of any responsibility for Kerviel's massive trading positions, which dealt a big blow to its reputation and forced it to raise capital.
Kerviel portrayed SocGen as having imposed little oversight on its traders, saying he was never told what his official remit was and that his desk regularly flouted its 125 million euro limit. "My mandate was to make money for the bank," he told the court. Kerviel also said he had signed, but not read, a book of guidelines for traders at the bank, saying: "It was worthless."
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