Legal News

How Long Will It Take Kerviel to Repay $6.7 Billion?

By (Breaking Legal News)

The man who nearly took down the French banking system is on the hook for millennia.

Jérôme Kerviel, the low-level trader whose rogue bets cost Société Générale ?4.9 billion ($6.7 billion) in early 2008, was convicted today by a French court and ordered to repay the bank's losses.

At Société Générale, Kerviel earned about ?100,000 a year ($137,000), the Journal has reported. At that rate, it would take Kerviel 49,000 years to repay what he owes. That would be a serious display of fortitude for a man Société Générale's co-CEO has called "mentally weak."

Kerviel's lawyer said he would appeal his conviction, and the financial damages are likely to be on hold while an appeal is underway. French media said Kerviel is earning about ?2,300 a month as a computer consultant, according to the Associated Press. Repayment rate: Nearly 178,000 years.

Of course, the 33-year-old Kerviel isn't employed at Société Générale. Instead of eyeballing stock indexes at the bank's "Delta One" desk in Paris, he was ordered to prison for three years. Kerviel's conviction today on charges of breach of trust, forgery, and unauthorized computer use also included a lifetime ban on trading.

If Kerviel is freed to work, he'll make at least the French minimum wage of ?1,343.77 a month, according to Eurostat. At that pace, it would take Kerviel nearly 304,000 years to repay his fine.

Full post as published by Breaking Legal News on October 06, 2010 (boomark / email).