French rogue trader to go to jail

19 March 2014 Last updated at 15:04

French rogue trader Jerome Kerviel to go to jail

Jerome Kerviel says his walk from Rome to Paris has been liberating

The French rogue trader who caused huge losses at bank Societe Generale has lost his appeal against a three-year jail sentence.

France's highest court upheld the jail sentence against Jerome Kerviel but ordered a review of the 4.9bn euros (£4.1bn) in damages he was told to pay.

The court said a lower court decision had not taken into account the bank's own responsibility when it ordered him to make good the bank's entire losses.

Kerviel's lawyer called it "a victory".

"We are starting afresh," said David Koubbi.

"We are going to ask for an expert assessment to establish exactly what happened at Societe Generale. This is the end of the Jerome Kerviel case and the beginning of a new case against Societe Generale."

The bank responded by saying: "Jerome Kerviel has lost his court case. Societe Generale has won. There were failings at the Societe Generale but they have been repaired."

'Available to police'

Societe Generale revealed in 2008 that Kerviel had run up $50bn (£33bn; 38bn euros) of unauthorised trades which had to be unwound.

The process cost the bank 4.9bn euros - the biggest loss of its kind in history.

A new civil trial will take place to decide the eventual damages Kerviel will have to pay.

Kerviel has spent the past three weeks walking back to Paris from Rome, where he met Pope Francis, and is currently near Bologna.

He told the BBC the walk was helping him to come to terms with his past and his future.

Kerviel has always admitted the unauthorised trades, but said officials at Societe Generale knew what he was doing but turned a blind eye as long as it was making money, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

Kerviel said: "The only goal was money, money, money for the bank. I didn't care about what I was doing."

He said he was not trying to evade justice: "I am going back to France - I remain at the disposal of justice and the police, so if they want me I am available."