Societe Generale....

When I got new of this incident I thought I had had enough... a BIG one a day is just too much. And I felt too lazy to get to post this in the gallery immediately. This laziness continued and today the adrenalin started flowing when I read more about what is being said and claimed by the bank and the accused.

My other post is about my thoughts on the Societe Generale fiasco
Check securambling,blogspot.com - Societe Generale ... lies, lies and more lies and the second article about the security controls they seem to be missing among others.

The incident was reported on Jan 24, 2008 early in the morning and Reuters gives the timeline to the events leading to it............ (note that as on the day of publishing this article the amount 'defrauded' is 7 bn)
Timeline of events in SocGen fraud case
Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:15pm EST
PARIS (Reuters) - The following is a timeline of events concerning the alleged fraud at Societe Generale (SocGen) that caused $7 billion of losses at the French bank.

........... read the article...


Did he "defraud" the bank ?

Defraud (verb) : Deprive of by deceit; "He swindled me out of my inheritance"; "She defrauded the customers who trusted her"; "the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change".
(Webster's Online Dictionary)
He was doing his job, but the control systems were not doing theirs. There is a gross failure of the controls they seem to have in place. I have a few observations in my security blog. And according to the statements they have


SocGen style fraud could strike again, but bigger
Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:13am EST
By Andrew Hurst, European Banking Correspondent

ZURICH (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale's 4.9 billion euro ($7.1 billion) loss, blamed on a single employee, is a stark reminder that rogue traders can elude the most sophisticated security systems until it is too late

"We have a hyper-sophisticated system of checks and controls. It's very hard to understand," said a senior employee at the bank who asked not to be identified. "But there are always holes in any system."

The statements from the bank are changing and will be worth following. As of today 1/30 the amount has been changed from 7.1bn to 5.1 bn. The trader is no longer a 'rouge' because he has been at this job for too long to be in the rogue category. More needs to come out in the open because it is impossible to believe that this one guy could do so much without ANYONE in the bank having a clue about what he did and how he did what he did.

He (the trader Kerviel) is in custody and is charged with breach of confidence etc. and could face imprisonment of upto 3 years. (Reuters - BoF's Noyer says told SocGen to improve controls
Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:28pm EST) The charge of fraud has been thrown out ! I believe there will be some stuff about misuse of bank computing systems, trust, falsification of records.

Check out Reuters for all the latest !
Search Societe Generale on Reuters for the latest.

Well thats another incident for the history books and we can look forward to M Kerveil making money with a cool consulting business and an autobiography once he is out of prison.











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