I can't find the full transcript, even in french.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtHSerMHPwM7eBvLUmzfKmJFsipg
French trader refuses to be 'scapegoat' for SocGen losses
2 days ago
PARIS (AFP) â The dealer blamed for a seven-billion dollar rogue trader loss at French bank Societe Generale told AFP Tuesday he had got "a bit carried away," but refused to be made a scapegoat for the whole scandal.
Jerome Kerviel, 31, who was propelled to worldwide notoriety overnight by his role in the affair, agreed to meet AFP at his lawyer's Paris offices for his first interview since the scandal broke late last month.
"I was designated (as solely responsible) by Societe Generale. I accept my share of responsibility but I will not be made a scapegoat for Societe Generale," Kerviel said.
Wearing jeans and a white checkered shirt, the young trader appeared smiling and composed during the 15-minute interview.
Kerviel said he "never thought of running away" from the law, after the bank blamed him for causing losses of 4.8 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars), revealed to the world on January 24.
Societe Generale accuses Kerviel of placing more than 50 billion euros in unauthorised futures trades, circumventing internal controls with stolen computer access codes and fictitious documents.
Kerviel was charged last week with breach of trust, using false documents and unauthorised computer access, although judges did not approve the more serious charge of fraud.
Kerviel told his story in shy, gentle tones, his lawyer Elisabeth Meyer at his side.
"I never had any personal ambition in this affair. The aim was to earn money for the bank," he said.
"You lose your sense of the sums involved when you are in this kind of work. It's disembodied. You get a bit carried away."
Kerviel said he had "yet to fully grasp" the implications of the affair, which has sparked international calls for tighter regulation of financial markets -- and left France's third bank a likely takeover target.
He said he was following the case day by day "in the papers and on the Internet" -- and that "there would be a lot to say. A lot of things are twisted in the press."
In particular, Kerviel dismissed reports casting him as psychologically unstable: "I am neither suicidal nor depressive," he said with a smile.
He said that "everything went well" during his questioning by French investigators last week: "I said exactly what I had to say."
But the trader refused to go further into the details of the affair, saying he was "saving his statements for the judges"
Kerviel admitted during questioning to falsifying company e-mails to cover his tracks after he started making unauthorised deals in 2005, according to leaked records of his deposition.
But he also told investigators the bank must have known what he was doing because of the profits he had generated previously, and suggested his bosses turned a blind eye as long as he was not in the red.
According to a judicial source, Kerviel was questioned again for eight hours on Monday by judges who asked him about his working conditions at the Societe Generale trading desk, which he joined in 2005.
Prosecutors have appealed the judges' decision to release him from custody under judicial supervision, with a hearing set for Friday, which Kerviel said he would attend.
Kerviel said he was staying with friends in the Paris region -- far from his flat in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly -- after having spent a weekend in the countryside.
The trader said he had been in limited contact with his family, who come from the Breton village of Pont l'Abbe, saying he wanted to "protect them from the media," which he described as "really oppressive".
Denying claims that he had been placed under round-the-clock police protection, Kerviel left the interview alone, on foot, blending into the anonymous Paris crowd.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtHSerMHPwM7eBvLUmzfKmJFsipg
French trader refuses to be 'scapegoat' for SocGen losses
2 days ago
PARIS (AFP) â The dealer blamed for a seven-billion dollar rogue trader loss at French bank Societe Generale told AFP Tuesday he had got "a bit carried away," but refused to be made a scapegoat for the whole scandal.
Jerome Kerviel, 31, who was propelled to worldwide notoriety overnight by his role in the affair, agreed to meet AFP at his lawyer's Paris offices for his first interview since the scandal broke late last month.
"I was designated (as solely responsible) by Societe Generale. I accept my share of responsibility but I will not be made a scapegoat for Societe Generale," Kerviel said.
Wearing jeans and a white checkered shirt, the young trader appeared smiling and composed during the 15-minute interview.
Kerviel said he "never thought of running away" from the law, after the bank blamed him for causing losses of 4.8 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars), revealed to the world on January 24.
Societe Generale accuses Kerviel of placing more than 50 billion euros in unauthorised futures trades, circumventing internal controls with stolen computer access codes and fictitious documents.
Kerviel was charged last week with breach of trust, using false documents and unauthorised computer access, although judges did not approve the more serious charge of fraud.
Kerviel told his story in shy, gentle tones, his lawyer Elisabeth Meyer at his side.
"I never had any personal ambition in this affair. The aim was to earn money for the bank," he said.
"You lose your sense of the sums involved when you are in this kind of work. It's disembodied. You get a bit carried away."
Kerviel said he had "yet to fully grasp" the implications of the affair, which has sparked international calls for tighter regulation of financial markets -- and left France's third bank a likely takeover target.
He said he was following the case day by day "in the papers and on the Internet" -- and that "there would be a lot to say. A lot of things are twisted in the press."
In particular, Kerviel dismissed reports casting him as psychologically unstable: "I am neither suicidal nor depressive," he said with a smile.
He said that "everything went well" during his questioning by French investigators last week: "I said exactly what I had to say."
But the trader refused to go further into the details of the affair, saying he was "saving his statements for the judges"
Kerviel admitted during questioning to falsifying company e-mails to cover his tracks after he started making unauthorised deals in 2005, according to leaked records of his deposition.
But he also told investigators the bank must have known what he was doing because of the profits he had generated previously, and suggested his bosses turned a blind eye as long as he was not in the red.
According to a judicial source, Kerviel was questioned again for eight hours on Monday by judges who asked him about his working conditions at the Societe Generale trading desk, which he joined in 2005.
Prosecutors have appealed the judges' decision to release him from custody under judicial supervision, with a hearing set for Friday, which Kerviel said he would attend.
Kerviel said he was staying with friends in the Paris region -- far from his flat in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly -- after having spent a weekend in the countryside.
The trader said he had been in limited contact with his family, who come from the Breton village of Pont l'Abbe, saying he wanted to "protect them from the media," which he described as "really oppressive".
Denying claims that he had been placed under round-the-clock police protection, Kerviel left the interview alone, on foot, blending into the anonymous Paris crowd.
, no limits to human delusion I see.