France

French bank Société Générale has said it will not seek the full 4.9 billion euros in damages imposed on its former trader Jérôme Kerviel, who was sentenced Tuesday to three years in jail, with two suspended, for illicit trading.

Former trader Jérôme Kerviel, who was sentenced to three years and fined 4.9 billion euros in damages Tuesday for illicit trades that led to huge losses at French bank Société Générale, has said he is a scapegoat of the financial system.

A criminal court in Paris has sentenced former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel to five years in jail, including two suspended, and to pay 4.9 billion euros in damages for illicit trading that caused huge losses at the French bank.

"Rogue trader" Jérôme Kerviel (pictured), the man accused of single-handedly losing 4.9 billion euros at French bank Société Générale in 2008, faces sentencing in a Paris courtroom on Tuesday.

A lawyer for former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel has asked a court in Paris to clear his client of any wrongdoing in the scandal that cost the French bank close to €5 billion.

French prosecutors requested Thursday that rogue trader Jerome Kerviel be sentenced to four years in prison over alleged illicit trading that cost the French bank Société Générale €5 billion in losses.

French bank Société Générale on Wednesday told a Paris court it wants €4.9 billion in compensation from former employee Jérôme Kerviel, who is on trial for alleged illicit trading that cost the bank €5 billion in losses.

Ex-Société Générale chairman and CEO Daniel Bouton said that the company’s 2008 trading scandal was a "catastrophe" spurred by former trader Jerome Kerviel's "lies". Bouton made his remarks Tuesday during Kerviel’s trial.

Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel faces former Societe Generale chairman and CEO Daniel Bouton this week at the criminal trial over the bank’s 4.9 billion-euro trading loss.