Société Générale accused of rigging evidence against rogue trader

A French court has ordered an investigation into whether the Société Générale bank rigged evidence against Jérôme Kerivel, following a complaint made by the rogue trader’s lawyers. Kerviel asked for his five-year prison sentence to be reduced in a separate bid earlier this week.

Jérôme Kerviel near the Franco-Italian border as he returned to France to serve his prison sentence earlier this year Reuters/Jean-Paul

Through his lawyers Kerviel, who has been in Fleury-Mérogis prison near Paris since May, claims that his bosses edited a tape of an interview with them when it was discovered that he had lost millions of euros in dubious trading, according toLe Monde newspaper.

He claims that a passage when he accuses them of knowing what he was up to, a key part of his defence, has been cut out.

He also accuses the bank of blaming him for losses incurred by other traders and says that tax breaks of 1.7 billion euros made after the story broke but before his trial should have been deducted from the 8.9 billion euros he has been ordered to pay Société Générale.

Although a Paris court earlier dismissed the charges, a finance investigator, Roger Le Loire, has ordered an investigation into charges of fraud, a procedure that is automatic once a formal complaint has been registered.

In September another court will examine a call for an independent examination of the losses the bank registered in 2008 at Kerviel’s lawyers’ request and the ex-trader has also laid a complaint alleging witness tampering, targeting the testimony of one of his superiors who claimed to know nothing of what he was doing.

And a request for a reduction of his prison sentence of five years with two years suspended will go before a court on 29 July.