PARIS |
(Reuters) - Former Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel was sentenced to three years in jail by a Paris court on Tuesday for his role in a trading scandal and ordered to pay the French bank 4.9 billion euros ($6.8 billion).
The verdict came as a victory for SocGen, which always maintained Kerviel acted alone and without the sanction of his managers at the bank. It had sought payment of damages for the money it lost unwinding the trader's risky market bets in 2008.
Kerviel's lawyer said he would immediately appeal the verdict, which he said was "senseless" and cleared the bank of all blame.
"Jerome is outraged ... that the people who created him have been totally exonerated," Olivier Metzner told journalists outside the courtroom in the Palais de Justice. Kerviel was given a total prison sentence of five years, two years of which were suspended. The public prosecutor had recommended Kerviel serve at least four years behind bars, with a fifth year suspended.
The payment to SocGen equates to 3.2 percent of France's central government deficit for 2010, the GDP of Monaco or 16 percent of the French bank's market value. Kerviel is currently paid 2,300 euros a month as a technology consultant.
