Alleged rogue trader Jerome Kerviel has gone on trial in Paris accused of unauthorised deals that cost French bank Société Générale €5 billion.
Kerviel, dressed in a dark suit and purple tie, spoke only to confirm his personal details at the start of the trial due to last three weeks.
The 33-year-old Frenchman is accused of gambling away €4.9 billion in risky stock market trades in 2008 and of hiding these actions from his employers at Societe Generale.
The court must decide whether he is solely responsible for the losses in a case seen as a symbol of the banking excesses blamed for the financial crisis.
Branded a crook by his ex-employer but seen by others as a scapegoat for those higher up, Kerviel faces criminal charges along with civil suits by the bank and other plaintiffs, including employees and shareholders.
Kerviel risks a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of €375,000 if convicted on charges of breach of trust, falsifying and using fake documents and entering false data into company computers.
