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Societe Generale shareholders point finger at supervisor

A lawyer for shareholders of Societe Generale asked judges on Thursday to question a senior supervisor of a trader the bank blames for major losses and to revoke the company's status as "victim" in the probe.

Frederik Canoy, representing a shareholder association called APPAC, said senior officials at the bank must have been aware of trader Jerome Kerviel's unauthorized activity.

"Societe Generale, in presenting itself as a victim, is an impostor," Canoy said. "The real victims are the shareholders."

Two investigating judges are questioning people as they look into the affair, while Kerviel is in prison pinned with preliminary charges.

APPAC, which says shareholders suffered as a result of the trading losses, and Societe Generale, which says the bank suffered as a result of the losses, are both considered complainants in the case. Canoy said he sent a letter on Thursday to judges asking that Societe Generale's status be changed.

The bank says Kerviel evaded computer controls and overstepped his authority to bet massively in futures in European equity indexes and that it lost more than US$7 billion cleaning up his trades. The bank says he acted alone, but Kerviel said during questioning that his superiors looked the other way when he was making money for the bank.

In the lawyer's letter, Canoy asked the judges to question Martial Rouyere, the head of the trading desk where Kerviel worked. Canoy, who has access to legal documents filed in the case, suggested Rouyere had knowledge of Kerviel's activity, but did not stop it because Kerviel's trades were gaining money for the bank.
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