FACTBOX - More questions than answers after SocGen fraud

Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:57pm GMT
 
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(Reuters) - The biggest rogue trader scandal in history hit French bank Societe Generale on Thursday, with a junior employee accused of a fraud costing $7 billion (3.6 billion pounds).

But the crisis has raised more questions than answers about the reasons for the fraud, how it was implemented and escalated, and what it means for the banking industry.

Here are some key issues still unknown:

--WHERE IS JEROME KERVIEL?

The 31-year-old has been named by banking sources as the man behind the fraud, although SocGen has still not confirmed the identity of the rogue dealer.

A photograph of an unsmiling Kerviel has been carried by the world's media, but none have tracked him down. Dubbed "the man who blew up the bank" by French daily Le Parisien, he has been variously described as a genius and a troubled introvert.

A lawyer claiming to represent Kerveil said he was not on the run and was ready to cooperate with investigators.

"I am sure he is very scared," Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who was at the centre of similar controversy when he cost Barings $1.4 billion over a decade ago, told Irish media.

--DID KERVIEL ACT ALONE?  Continued...

 
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