Kerviel says SocGen must have known of his trades

By Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - The man at the centre of a trading scandal at Societe Generale said that his activities could not have gone undetected by the French bank.

Trader Jerome Kerviel was questioned by police over the weekend after SocGen said he set up illicit positions that cost them 4.9 billion euros (3.6 billion pounds) to unwind in sinking markets last week.

Lengthy excerpts of the transcripts were printed by various French media, including mediapart.fr website and the website of Le Monde daily on Tuesday, and a judicial source contacted by Reuters confirmed the content.

Kerviel told police that at best there was systematic failure of computer and management controls.

A lawyer for the French bank questioned Kerviel's account.

"Mr Kerviel has accused a certain number of people, but he also recognises having taken positions while covering up his tracks and in a way that is totally against the rules," Jean Viel told RTL radio.

According to the reported statement to police, Kerviel said he started hiding his trades in 2005 and had accumulated profits of 1.4 billion euros by the end of last year.

The sum was so huge that he counterbalanced it with fictitious, loss-making operations so as not to draw attention to himself.