Kerviel taken aback by Madoff, says Kerviel boss - Jerome Kerviel Societe Generale Stock futures

Kerviel taken aback by Madoff, says Kerviel boss
Reuters, Saturday January 17 2009
By Sudip Kar-Gupta
PARIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The new boss of Jerome Kerviel, the French financier blamed for a record rogue trading scandal, said Kerviel had been taken aback by the alleged $50 billion fraud of American businessman Bernard Madoff.
"We've spoken about it in the office. Like everyone else, we've all been taken aback by it," Jean-Raymond Lemaire told Reuters. Lemaire founded the LCA software company where Kerviel has been working since last April.
On Jan. 24 last year, SocGen unveiled 4.9 billion euros ($6.50 billion) of losses which it said were caused by unauthorised deals carried out by Kerviel, a 31-year-old junior trader at the bank.
The scandal set the tone for a year which was one of the worst ever for world markets since the crash of 1929, and which culminated in December with the Madoff scandal.
In December, U.S. financier Madoff was arrested over what would be the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid-off with the money of new clients.
However, Kerviel's boss Lemaire said the two incidents were completely different.
"It's got nothing to do with it," Lemaire said in a phone interview, dismissing any resemblances between the two.
Kerviel's spokeswoman said Kerviel himself was unavailable for contact.
KERVIEL "IN GOOD SPIRITS"
As the first year anniversary of the Kerviel scandal approaches, Lemaire said the former derivatives trader was in good spirits, despite the ongoing legal case against him.
"It's still a big burden to bear, but he's fine."
Kerviel was freed from prison in March after an appeal against his detention, but he remains under formal investigation for breach of trust, computer abuse and falsification.
The Kerviel affair is the world's worst rogue trading incident at a bank, eclipsing losses in previous scandals, such as Nick Leeson's rogue trades that toppled British merchant bank Barings in 1995.
Kerviel's conditional release from prison set strict limits on his movements and contacts.
Kerviel is barred from entering a trading room or an exchange and cannot leave the Paris area without permission.
Lemaire said he had settled in well into his job at LCA, where Kerviel works a regular 5-day week at the company's offices in the Levallois suburb just outside Paris.
"He's always in the office, usually working from 9am to 7pm. He's helping us construct a software consulting product."
"People are fairly discrete, but he's our colleague. We have lunch with him. He's completely integrated into the team."
Lemaire said others in the Levallois area knew who Kerviel was and sometimes said hello to him and treated him courteously.
Lemaire added that Kerviel received a regular, monthly salary but declined to say how much this was.
"My decision to hire him was to help him following his release from prison and give him another chance in life." ($1=.7543 Euro) (Editing by Ben Tan)