The three-week trial of Jér?me Kerviel opened with great fanfare in Paris yesterday. More than 90 different newspapers, TV and radio organisations and press agencies are covering the event, and the question on everybody's mind – in France at least – is who really is on trial?
The obvious answer is the 33-year-old rogue trader who cost his bank, Société Générale, nearly €5bn in losses by gambling on a grand scale in risky derivative markets. He is accused of forgery, breach of trust and unauthorised computer use in carrying out a series of what the bank says were unauthorised trades. He risks up to five years in prison and a big fine if he is found guilty.
His defence is that his superiors at the bank knew what he was doing – something the bank denies. Mr Kerviel and his celebrity defence lawyer Olivier Metzner are also likely to claim in court that the former golden boy was only a pawn in a financial system that ran amok.