Bank bosses 'can't have ignored' rogue deals

Benoit Tailleu – who ran the Societ Generale trading desk where Jerome Kerviel worked but left before the scandal – said Kerviel's direct superiors "could not totally ignore" his activities. "That is certain. It is obvious."

On the fourth day of his trial, Kerviel's lawyers were yesterday still trying to show that the bank tolerated his risk-taking, which Societ Generale has denied.

Kerviel bet up to 50 billion euros, costing the bank nearly 5 billion euros once it unwound his deals in January 2008, in what remains the largest-ever fraud by a single trader, although it has since been dwarfed by other crises in the financial world – from the fall of Lehman Brothers to Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

The portfolio managed by Kerviel, now 33, did not carry great risks, Mr Tailleu said. The type of positions Kerviel took "have nothing to do with (Kerviel's) portfolio."

"It's as if Jerome Kerviel had a mandate to buy 10 tons of strawberries but bought 100 tons of potatoes and the supervisor passes through the hangar every day and says nothing," Mr Tailleu said.

He said Kerviel could not have been a solitary schemer.

"The scenario of the isolated trader pleases and, at the same time, is the less worrisome for (bank) chiefs, shareholders," he said.

Kerviel faces a possible five years in prison if convicted of forgery, breach of trust and unauthorised computer use.

The case continues.